Finding Hope
by thewandofdestiny
Summary: After a brutal past two summers,Lily Evans returns to Hogwarts to find everything she's ever known completely turned upside down. Full Summary inside!
1. 1:Of reunions, wards, and friendships

**Full Summary: After a brutal past two summers, Lily Evans returns to Hogwarts to find that everything she's ever known has been turned upside down. James Potter is acting weirdly , Callie's borderline anorexic, Adalyn's falling in love, and people are actually being nice to her! What will happen in Lily's whirlwind of a 7****th**** year?**

**A/N: Okay, so I know the summary's crap, but whatever. Writing summaries is not my forte. A couple things about the story, just as a heads up. First, and probably the biggest thing, I'm just in High School, so I don't know that much about the 70s. Because of that, there **_**are**_** some things in here that don't fit with the time such as clothes and music. So, sorry about that. This is a fanfiction though, so I hope it won't matter too much. Second, I will try to make this as cannon as possible, but I know there are some things that I'll miss. Please try to keep in mind that I'm not an expert, I'm just in High School!**

**Oh, I do have a question. Does anybody know how to make the line go across the page on here? If you could let me know, that'd be fantastic! Oh, and does anyone want to be my beta reader?? I'd love you all for it! 3**

**Okay, enough of me rambling. Onwards to the story! Oh, please read and review at the end! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, so I do not own anything that you recognize.**

Chapter 1: Of reunions, wards, and friendship

It was a typical day on Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. Young Christopher and Abby Lyle were playing hopscotch in the quiet street, Miss Figg could be seen hobbling down the street with a bag of cat food clutched tightly in her arms, and Petunia Evans and Vernon Dursley were walking hand in hand down the street. If anyone was looking for Lily Evans, she could be found fast asleep near the stream behind Magnolia Court, a street nearby. Although she seemed to fit in perfectly with the surrounding community, Lily Evans was nothing at all like the rest of them. She was a witch. Not the green skin and warts kind, for which she was thankful. But she did brew potions and cast spells on people. Lily attended a boarding school by the name of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in order to learn about her magic and how to use it correctly. She was to go back on September 1st. Today was August 31st.

"Lily!"

"Lily Evans!"

"Lily, dear! Time to come in for supper!" Sally Evans called out to her daughter. It was not an uncommon occurrence to hear Mrs. Evans call for her youngest daughter.

Lily's emerald green eyes snapped open, as she pulled herself up to head inside. _Less than 24 hours until I'm home again,_ she thought. As much as Lily loved her parents and her muggle (non-magic) heritage, it would never be home to her again. Hogwarts was her real home. It was the one place she truly felt like she belonged. Part of this situation attributed to Petunia's feelings towards Lily. Petunia was Lily's sister, and despised Lily with every ounce of her frail body. Lily knew that Petunia was simply jealous of her magic, but it hurt none-the-less. Petunia's disparaging remarks cut Lily to her very core. The other part of this was what happened two summers ago. Lily's mind was still reeling from it, and because of it, she never felt safe in Little Whinging. There were just too many bad memories for her to be there. Shaking her head of such thoughts, Lily climbed the steps to her family's house.

Dinner was a quiet affair at the Evans' household. Petunia was eating dinner at Vernon's tonight, and Lily was too absorbed in thinking about going home to Hogwarts the next day that she didn't hear her father talk about his patients. Normally, Lily loved to hear about her father's days because Mark Evans was a doctor, and she herself wanted to become a healer one day, which was the wizard equivalent of becoming a doctor.

"Lily, dear, off to bed with you. You won't want to be tired for tomorrow," Sally told her daughter.

Lily simply nodded, and headed up to bed, falling asleep as her head hit the pillow.

*_*_*_*

"LILY MARIE EVANS! IT'S 9 O'CLOCK! YOU ARE GOING TO MISS YOUR TRAIN!" Mark yelled, knowing that his daughter took ages to get ready in the morning. And at the moment his daughter was still fast asleep in bed.

Lily's eyes snapped open. _Bloody buggering hell!!_ She thought as she rolled out of bed and headed for a quick shower. Once she was clean, Lily blow dried her hair, which took forever because of her thick long red locks. Tearing through what was left of her closet, Lily pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans, pairing them with a pale green cashmere sweater and her battered forest green converse. She slipped on her wrist a charm bracelet that her father had given her when she first started Hogwarts. Lily felt like it was necessary for her to wear it today. To complete her look, Lily decided to wear some make-up today, something she rarely did. She applied some shimmery green eye shadow to make her emerald eyes pop even more, adding black eyeliner and mascara, and finishing it off with some clear lip gloss. As she stood in front of her full length mirror, looking back at her was a 5'9" young girl with a petite frame, long, thick gorgeous red locks, and bright emerald green eyes. She looked at her too small frame and clashing hair and eyes, but she decided that she looked good enough for today. Lily took one last look across her room, to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, grabbed her truck and her purse, flicked off the lights, and ran downstairs.

"I'm ready," Lily announced as appeared in the kitchen.

"Alright, dear. Do you have everything? Your Head Girl Badge? Your wand? Clothes?" Sally rambled on.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, mum. My badge is in my purse, as is my wand, and my clothes are in my trunk," she replied in annoyed tone. Her mother could be rather annoying sometimes.

"Have a good time this year, Lils," Mark interjected, sensing a fight brewing. "Remember to get up early enough to do whatever you do in the morning that takes you so long to get ready, and most of all, remember that boys are stinky."

Lily stuck out her tongue at her dad. "Dad, I'm seventeen, legally an adult in the Wizarding world. I'll be fine."

"Yet, you don't act like it." Mark remarked, smirking at his youngest daughter.

"Bye, Dad!" Lily changed the topic. "I love you lots, and I'll see you at Christmas. Same goes to you, Mum."

"Bye, my dear sweet Lily! Have a great term," Sally said with a weak voice, obviously trying to hold back her tears.

"Bye, Mum," Lily said, rolling her eyes. She turned around, heading to her backyard, from where she would apparate to Kings Cross.

*_*_*_*

Lily arrived at Platform 9 ¾ with 30 minutes to spare. There were a few people on the platform, but her friends, sadly, weren't here yet, and thankfully, neither were the Marauders. She took her trunk and other things to her usual compartment, the last one on the train. As she left the compartment, she bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't see—"her apology was cut off when she was enveloped in an enormous hug.

"LILY!!! OH MY GOD!! How are you? You look even more gorgeous today. What did you do differently? I love your haircut! How was your summer? I know it was tough for you, but I want happy details! How's your bitch of a sister?" Lily's best friend screamed once she released Lily from her hug.

"Whoa, 'Lyn. One question at a time," Lily laughed, before taking a good look at her friend.

Adalyn, 'Lyn or Addy, was, as usual, gorgeous. She had long black hair that always had some streaks of color in it. Currently, it was ice blue which suited her nicely. Adalyn was tall and slender and had a figure very similar to Lily. She had stormy grey eyes that had a ring of ice blue around the edges.

Lily and Adalyn had a special bond that no one could break, not that anybody hadn't tried. Adalyn and Lily knew each other like the back of their hands. Of course, many things had tried to come between the two girls: boys, academics, boys, family, boys, friends, boys, you get the idea. They were the James Potter and Sirius Black of the female world. Each was the sister the other girl never had. They, like James Potter and Sirius Black, had fan clubs, but the two girls had no idea of their existence, while the boys embraced theirs.

Adalyn took a deep breath, "Okay, first things first: what did you do differently today? You look completely different, but yet completely the same!"

Lily smiled, "I dunno. I got my haircut last week, and I decided to put on a little make-up because I felt like it."

"Welcome to the glorious world of make-up!!" Adalyn squealed. Lily wore some make-up, but not very much and not often, while Adalyn wore a decent amount every day, but not to the point where it looked sluty.

Lily simply rolled her eyes at her best friend, and quickly changed the subject so that she wouldn't have to talk about her own. Summers were always difficult for her. "How about you? How was your summer?"

Adalyn shot Lily a look that clearly meant that she knew what Lily was up to, but she let it slide. "Oh my gosh! It was AMAZING! My parents took me to New Zealand! It was amazing!! So pretty! And there were so many cute boys! Oh, there was one boy named Tyler…" she rambled on and on. Lily simply smiled. It felt so good to be around her true family once again.

"Oi! Are you ever going to stop talking about boys?" a voice came from the compartment.

"ALICE!!" Lily squealed, as she ran over to greet her friend. Once their traditional hugs were over, Lily studied Alice. Alice was the same as she had always been. She had a round face that always had a smile on it. Alice's hair was a golden brown, as were her eyes. Alice's looks didn't make boys fall for her, but instead it was her kind personality. Everywhere Alice went, she made people smile. Unfortunately for most boys, Alice had been going steady with a boy named Frank Longbottom for quite some time. Even though everyone knew she was taken, boys still tried to get Alice to cheat on Frank with them, something Alice would never do due to her unwavering loyalty to those she loved and that list included Frank.

As soon as Alice sat down, questions began firing all across the compartment.

"How was your summer?

"You look different today! What did you do differently?"

"How are you?!?"

"Any new boy toys, Addy?" Lily giggled, knowing the answer, while Adalyn threw Alice a dirty look.

"How about you, Alice? Frank proposed, yet?" Adalyn asked, smirking.

Alice blushed all the way to the roots of her hair. "Of course not. Why would he?"

Before Lily and Adalyn could knock some sense into Alice, the fourth member of quartet entered the compartment.

"CALLIE!!" the other three girls shrieked.

While Lily was waiting to give Callie her own hug, she was looking at her friend, who had changed quite amount since Lily had last seen her. Callie had grown another couple of inches, making her legs look even longer. Callie had bright blonde hair that turned heads everywhere she went. Callie's eyes were a piercing blue, going with her hair perfectly. Lily noticed Callie still had the same body structure, though. She was still almost unnaturally skinny; many people often thought that she was anorexic, something even Lily had questioned and was probably right for guessing so. None-the-less, Lily still loved Callie, which was why at that moment, she nearly tackled Callie with her own big hug.

"Lily, don't you have a prefect meeting to go to?" Alice asked.

"Bloody buggering hell! I completely forgot! I'm supposed to be running that meeting! Gotta go! Oh, save me a chocolate frog, will ya?" Lily shrieked, as she ran from the compartment, all the way to the front of the train, where the Head's and Prefect's compartments were.

"Bloody buggering hell? That's a new one," Adalyn smirked.

"What does she mean that she's supposed to be running that meeting? Is she Head Girl?" Alice asked, confused.

"I suppose so," Callie murmured.

*_*_*_*

Lily sprinted down the train, trying desperately to get to the Head's compartment in time. "Sorry I'm late," Lily panted as she reached the compartment. "I completely forgot."

"Evans? Late? And saying sorry? That's a first," said a voice she recognized all too well.

"Oh, hell no. There's no way that YOU'RE Head Boy," Lily murmured, shaking her head and staring down her sworn enemy.

If Lily was purely honest with herself, something that rarely happened, she knew that she didn't hate James. She was simply jealous of him. It seemed like he had it all: he was rich, had a good family, good friends, a Quidditch star, one of the most popular people in the school, and he could probably get any girl he wanted (except for Lily). Nearly everyone liked, if not loved, him. There were only a handful of people who weren't in love with him, and Lily was probably the only one who wasn't a Slytherin. That was the main reason why Lily believed James was after her for the thrill of the chase.

"Yup!" James Potter said, obviously enjoying the situation.

"Oh dear Merlin. This should be an interesting year," Lily said. "And by interesting, I mean absolutely horrendously horribly awful. Anyway, let's go meet the prefects so that the girls can drool all over you and the guys can try to kill you."

"Jealous, Evans?"

"You wish!" And with that, she disappeared, heading to the Prefect's compartment.

James followed her like a lost puppy.

"Hey, everyone!" Lily said, entering the compartment.

She was met with some smiles and congratulations, but only glares from the Slytherins.

Rolling her eyes and not waiting for James to say anything, she began her lecture. "We're not going to keep you lot long, not as long as last year anyway." This was met with many sighs of relief. Most of the older prefects remembered last year all too well. They spent practically the whole train ride in this compartment. It was brutal. "I'm Lily Evans, your Head Girl, and this is James Potter, your Head Boy, for some unknown reason. Now, for your duties: as you know, prefects have to do nightly patrols, make sure students aren't breaking rules, help with any events, and take away points. For nightly patrols, our Head Boy and I will come up with a schedule so you don't have to do patrols every night. It's brutal if you do. However, if you can't make your patrol for whatever reason, you have to find someone who will cover for you. As for making sure students aren't breaking rules, do just that. It's not that hard. If you see them breaking rules, take away points. At meetings, which will be every other Thursday night, you will hand in your totals for points that you have taken away and awarded along with the reasons for each. This will simply allow us to make sure no one is being bias or anything. And lastly, as I said before, prefects are required to help with any events that are planned. We'll talk more about the possibility of those at a later meeting. If one should come up, the Head Boy and I will assign jobs that you must do in order to prepare for the event. Any questions?"

All of the prefects shook their heads, desperate to leave the compartment and rejoin their friends in other compartments. James, however, raised his hand.

"What, Potter?" Lily said, her eyes narrowing.

"Will you go out with me?"

"PREFECTS! LEAVE!" Lily bellowed. "YOUR HEAD BOY AND I HAVE TO HAVE A FEW WORDS! OH, AND POTTER? THE ANSWER'S NO, AND IT WILL ALWAYS BE NO!"

All of the prefects scurried out of the room, knowing the danger of being around a Lily Evans/James Potter fight.

Rounding on James, she didn't yell, she just got deathly quiet. "We have to lay down some rules that you MUST follow as Head Boy: You will NEVER skip a meeting, and you will not make me look like a fool, and if you do, know that you are not the only one in this school who is clever, remember that. I have wanted this badge ever since I found out about it, which was in my first year, on my first day, and you will not do anything to jeopardize it. I know you didn't necessarily wanted it, hell, you probably still don't want it, but if you do ANYTHING to make me look bad or slack off on the duties, you will be severely harmed. Are we clear?"

James gulped. "Yes," he said. "I do have one question, though, well more demand actually."

Lily arched an eyebrow, listening.

"Will you go out with me? And before you refuse, look me in the eye and tell me no. If you do that, I promise to leave you alone for the rest of term. The only reason I ask is because I've noticed that you don't look anyone, including Adalyn, in the eye anymore, ever since the beginning of 6th year."

Panic rose up inside Lily. She couldn't do that. It was too soon. She shook her head. "No!"

"Come on, Evans! It's not that hard! Look me in the eye and say no!" James cried.

This was too much for Lily. Her face was ashen and her whole body was trembling. Two faces were floating in front of her vision, the faces of two teenage boys. "I can't," she croaked, before fleeing the compartment, in search of an empty one. As soon as she found one, she pulled out her wand, throwing every ward and charm she could think of that would make it so that no one could see into the compartment, hear what was going on inside, nor could they enter it. Once she was done that, she pulled out her muggle MP3 player that she had charmed to work inside the Hogwarts halls. Turning on Paramore, her favorite band, she turned the volume up pretty loud, allowing her to lose herself in the music. She curled up in a ball, rocking herself back and forth, trying to get the two faces out of her head.

Back in the Head's compartment, James was still in the same position that Lily had left him in. He was completely bewildered. He shrugged, figuring that he would never know what caused Lily's reaction. James suddenly smiled. He realized that he was still allowed to ask her out as much as he wanted. Knowing this, James sauntered down the hallway, heading back to the Marauder's compartment.

*_*_*_*

Twilight was nearing, and Lily had yet to return to her friend's compartment. Obviously, Adalyn, Callie, and Alice were getting worried. Well, it was mainly Adalyn and Alice because Callie was too busy reading her fashion magazines to notice the outside world.

"Where could she be?!?" Alice cried out.

"No bloody idea. I'm going to go ask my dearest cousin because he was probably the last person to talk to her," Adalyn said darkly.

"Wait…Why would Lily be talking to James?" Alice asked, confused. James Potter was the son of Adalyn's mother's sister.

"Oh, didn't you know? James is Head Boy," Adalyn said, smirking.

"Well, this year will certainly be interesting."

"Yup. Now, I have to go interrogate my cousin." And with that, Adalyn left the compartment to find James Potter.

Alice, meanwhile, went to go find Frank, in hopes that he could take her mind off of things.

*_*_*_*

Adalyn dashed down the corridor, but skidded to a halt when she saw a rather curious compartment. The windows were completely opaque, it seemed like it was soundproofed, and when she tried to knock, she couldn't get inside the compartment. A long time ago, when she had first started Hogwarts, Adalyn's mother taught her a spell that when cast, would reveal the identity of the person who cast the wards or other spells. It came in handy in situations like these, so murmuring the words, Adalyn waved her wand, waiting to see the magical signature. Vivid red and forest green swirls of pure light covered the compartment door. Having cast this spell many times, Adalyn automatically knew who it was: Lily. And knowing that it was Lily, she also knew that Lily's wards were pretty much unbreakable, so there was no chance that she could get into the compartment. _Dammit!_ She thought.

Adalyn ran to the Marauder's compartment, and as she reached it, she waved her wand, casting _Finite Incantatem_, which took down any spells, hexes or jinxes that the boys had put up to prevent anyone from entering the compartment.

Before she entered, however, she paused to look at the Marauders in all their glory. There was Peter Pettigrew, the follower of the bunch. He had mousy brown hair and pale blue watery eyes. He often gave Adalyn the impression of a rat. He would do anything to gain James' or Sirius' approval. There was Remus, the kind, thoughtful, and smart one. Adalyn was convinced that he was the brains behind all of the Marauders' major pranks.

Remus had sandy blonde hair that was just long enough where he had to flick it out of his eyes every so often. He had deep chocolate brown eyes that made many girls swoon at the sight of him. Remus was sick quite often, though, and Adalyn never knew why.

Adalyn shifted her gaze to Sirius Black, the womanizer and heart breaker. Sirius had looks to die for: he had rich brown hair and eyes that were almost the color of steel. Even though he gave off an aura of playfulness, Adalyn knew that there was something dark about his past. He seemed wise beyond his years when you looked close enough.

Finally, Adalyn looked at James. He was considered the leader of the Marauders, the glue that held them all together. He had raven colored hair that stuck up in the back, and beautiful hazel eyes. Nearly all of the girls in Hogwarts had had their hearts broken by either Sirius or James. Neither were known for their courtesy towards girls.

Taking a deep breath, she entered. "Oi! You!" Adalyn barked.

"Who? Me?" James asked.

"Yes, you!"

"It couldn't be!"

"Well then who? Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" Remus asked, laughing.

"I DID IT! I STOLE THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR!" Sirius shrieked, jumping up and down. "Wait… which cookie jar? 'Cause I definitely stole a load from Mrs. P's, and I haven't seen any since then. Have any of you? I swear I'll kill you all if you stole any cookies without giving any to me!!"

All of the other people in the compartment gave him what-the-hell looks.

"Sirius, I was making a reference to a Muggle kids' game, I wasn't ACTUALLY being serious. You pureblood lot won't know anything about it, anyway. You're all too stuck up. Well, save Addy, of course," Remus said, smirking.

"Thank you, my dear Remus," Adalyn said. "Anyway, James, I've got a bone to pick with you—Yes, Remus, that was for you."

"I appreciate that very much, my lady," Remus replied laughing.

"Anytime, my dear Lord," Adalyn said, trying desperately to keep a straight face, but failing miserably.

"Oi! What about me? You came in here to talk to me!" James cried.

"Right. I forgot that since you lot—minus Remus—act your shoe size," Adalyn said, smirking.

"Were we just insulted?" Sirius asked James.

"My dear Watson, I think you're right!" Remus muttered under his breath, giving James a sideways glace, and making Adalyn crack up.

"Of course, Sherlock! We're always right!" Adalyn jumped in.

"Are you serious?" James asked, hearing Remus and Adalyn's conversation.

"Of course I am Sirius!" Sirius cried.

"No, not you, you idiot. Them two."

"Of course they're not! I am! Jeez…any they call you the smart one," Sirius said.

"Wait… I thought Moony was the brains?"

"Oh yeah….Damn him. Oh, you never answered my question. Did she insult us?"

"Oh…I forgot about that…I think we were, but I'm not sure," James replied.

"Right, then. OI! WE RESENT THAT!" Sirius began, but James jumped in at the end.

"What the hell?" Adalyn and Remus both asked.

"You insulted us, didn't you?" Sirius asked, uncertainly.

"You two are the biggest bunch idiots I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. And before you say anything, yes, that was an insult. ANYWAY. Back to the main reason that I came in here. James, what the hell did you do to Lily?"

"What makes you think _I_ did something to her?" James retorted, getting defensive.

"'Cause I'm about 90% sure that you're the last person she's talked to, and right now, she's gotten herself in an empty compartment that's surrounded by wards so strong that I don't think even Dumbledore could break them."

"Evans can do wards? Damn…" Sirius asked in wonder.

"Damn, Prongs. What _did_ you do to her?" Remus asked in wonder.

"I dunno! I didn't do anything!" James denied.

"Okay, in boy speak, that means that you did do something, but you're not entirely sure why it affected her. Am I right?" Adalyn asked.

"How the hell did you get that from that?" All of the boys asked in wonder.

"I'm just observant. Plus, that's what you get when you live with girls for 7 years. You have to learn somehow, or you're never going to get any good gossip or secrets. Now, James, what happened? I need every detail about what happened, if we're going to figure out what you did to Lily."

"I dunno. She was sorta pissed at me 'cause I messed about a bit during the Prefects meeting. I wasn't much, I swear!" James cried, noticing the dark look from Adalyn. "All that happened was when she asked if anybody had any questions, I asked her out. It wasn't much, but she got all mad at me about it, and yelled for the prefects to leave and then she turned me down."

"You're a bloody idiot if you think that's how you're going to get her to finally say yes," Adalyn murmured.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I don't really know how to get her to say yes. Any suggestions?" James asked hopefully.

"I'll help you later with that. But I first need to figure out what's wrong with Lily, so continue your story."

"Right. Okay, so she said no, as usual, and then I made a deal with her. I said I wouldn't ask her out for the rest of the term if she would look me in the eye and tell me no. I told her how I had noticed that ever since after 5th year, she didn't look anybody in the eye. I maybe quite possibly said something about it wasn't that hard, and all she had to do was look me in the eye and tell me no. She sorta broke down after that and left the compartment."

"Bloody hell, Prongs! How did you know that?" Remus and Sirius both asked in wonder.

"I dunno. I just noticed it," James said, shrugging.

Adalyn's face was steadily growing paler, and she was murmuring, "He didn't do that. I know he DID NOT do that."

"I didn't do anything wrong! How was I supposed to know that would mess with her?" James cried out.

Turning to James, Adalyn quietly replied, "No, no. I'm not mad at you. I just have a really bad feeling about where this is going and if it's going where I think it is, we're all in for a really rough couple of weeks. I have a couple questions for you, though. Did her face get all ashen, and did her whole body start to shake? And did it seem like she was seeing something in her vision, maybe a face or something?"

"Yes, yes, and I'm not sure about the last one. I think so, but I'm not really sure. She got really scared, though." James replied.

If it was possible, Adalyn's face got more and more pale as James responded, and when James finished, she cried out, "Bloody buggering hell! Holy shit! Dammit! Holy fucking Merlin! That did not fucking happen!"

"Jeez, Addy. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Sirius asked, laughing.

"Shut it, Sirius! This is serious!" Adalyn cried.

"But I'm Sirius! How can this be me?" Sirius smirked.

"The emotion, you bloody moron! Now shut it!" Adalyn yelled.

"Wait…there's an emotion named after me?" Sirius asked in wonder. "Awesome!"

Adalyn turned to Remus and James, "How the hell can you stand this dolt?"

Remus sighed. "Sirius, it means that something is important and you can't mess about, and it's not named after you. I'm pretty sure it's been around a lot longer than you have," he told Sirius, as if he was explaining it to a four-year-old.

Sirius' mouth formed a perfect O.

"Now Adalyn…can I ask what all this means?" Remus asked.

"You can ask, but I can't tell you. It's not my place to say, and even if it was, I'm not sure I'd tell you lot, even though you guys are like my brothers," Adalyn replied grimly.

"This IS serious, isn't it?" James asked.

"Sirius, before you even say anything, we're talking about the emotion. Yeah, James, it is serious. It took Lily 6 months after the entire summer was over before she told me what happened after 5th year. You see, Lily doesn't handle big things like this well. Well, no one would, to be honest, but that's not the point. She tends to go into withdrawal. She won't eat, drink, or even talk to anyone about anything that's the slightest bit important. All she'll do is listen to her music in hopes that it will save her. If what you told me is accurate, James, it'll be like she was at the beginning of last year, and Remus, you'll be lucky to be able to talk to her at the end of a week," Adalyn spoke slowly.

The impact of this hit them all pretty strongly, seeing as each of the Marauders had some kind of love for Lily. Remus had the brotherly love for Lily, he was the older brother that Lily never had. She told him everything and he her. Their bond was unbreakable, so for Lily not to speak to Remus for a week and unheard of. It simply never happened, and it pained Remus to think about it, especially after what he remembered her being like at the beginning of last year. Sirius whimpered, he had the platonic love for Lily. She was his best friend that was a girl, the only one, for the most part, that he hadn't hooked up with. Sirius didn't like depressed Lily. Depressed Lily was not fun, and he couldn't poke fun at her and get a rise out of her if she was depressed. James, of course, had the romantic love for Lily. He knew it on a subconscious level, but he hadn't admitted it to himself yet. He knew he cared for Lily, and it pained him when she hurt, especially like this.

"Holy shit, Addy! What do we do?" Remus asked.

"I'm not sure," Adalyn replied. "I don't think there's much we can do, until we see how bad it is this time. I hope that because she's already gone though this, it won't be as bad as last time. We just need to be there for her, and James, for the love of Merlin and all that is good and decent in the world, please, please, please do not ask Lily out for at least 2 weeks, if not longer. The last thing she needs is for you to bug the hell out of her." Adalyn knew this was asking a lot from James, but she needed him to cooperate.

"I'll do my best," James sighed. It was going to be a difficult two weeks for him.

"Thanks, James. You're the best. And I promise that once these two weeks are over, I'll help you get Lily. I think everyone knows you two are made for each other except for her. It's only a matter of making her realize it."

"Really?" James asked in wonder.

"Yes, now I have to go. I need to go find Alice to tell her that I've found Lily. Oh, and you lot better get changed. I'd say we're about 15 minutes away," Adalyn said, standing up. "God, I wish I didn't have to go find Alice. She's probably with Frank, and Merlin knows what they're probably up to." She visibly shuddered at that thought. "Well, I'm off. See you lot at the feast!"

The boys said their goodbyes to her, and she left the compartment, walking down the train, looking in every compartment to find Alice.

*_*_*_*

Lily finally looked up when the train came to a stop. Still moving slowly because of the pain she felt in her chest, Lily transfigured her muggle clothes into a set of Hogwarts robes. Not only did she not have enough time to pull out her trunk, but she wasn't really in the mood to do anything that required extra effort. As she took down all of the wards and charms that she put up, Lily turned off her MP3 player and stuffed it into her pocket. She left her compartment and headed to the platform to direct first years to Hagrid and help second years head to the carriages. Even though she was accustomed to this task, Lily was not in the mood to do it. She just wanted to go to her dorm, away from prying eyes and everyone else, but she couldn't because she didn't know where it was. In her letter, it mentioned that she was sharing a dorm room with the Head Boy, but it didn't say where. She just assumed that she had to wait until after the feast to talk to McGonagall about it. Shrugging, Lily looked around the platform. Most people were already headed up to the castle, only a handful remained. Seeing a little girl who had mousy brown hair and bright blue eyes and looked completely lost, Lily went over to her.

"Hey, can I help you?" Lily asked the little girl.

"I'm…I'm not sure where to go," the little girl mumbled.

"Well, what year are you? That'll help us figure out where you're supposed to go."

"I'm a second year," she replied quietly.

"Right, then. You've got to ride in the carriages. Do you want to ride with me? Oh, the name's Lily, by the way. I'm the Head Girl."

"Okay… I'm Claire," the second year replied hesitantly, still talking quietly.

"Come on. I promise I won't bite!" Lily gave Claire a small smile. It was a much as she, Lily, could manage at the moment.

As the two girls approached the carriages, Claire spoke once again. "What are those things pulling the carriage?"

Lily felt her chest constrict, and she nearly started crying right then and there. "Come on, let's get in the carriage, and I'll tell you about them during the ride, okay?"

Claire nodded and got into the carriage. Lily followed her.

Taking a deep breath, Lily started talking. "Those things pulling the carriage are called Thestrals. Best I can figure, they're sort of like dead horses. They're winged horses that can be trained very easily, and people can even ride with them."

"But why can I see them when none of my friends can?" Claire interrupted.

Lily winced. "Claire, it's because you've seen some one die. As depressing as that is, that's the truth."

"Oh. Can you see them or do you just know about them because you're super smart?" Claire asked.

Lily blushed at the unexpected compliment. Taking a deep breath, she spoke. "I can see them. I've been able to see them since 6th year."

"So you've seen someone die, too, then?"

"Yeah, I have," Lily responded, desperately not wanting to tell this girl who she had seen die. The whole thing was too fresh in her mind, still. And Lily had never told anyone about it, not even Adalyn. She didn't want sympathy.

"Me too, obviously," Claire sighed. Her once bright blue eyes became full of sadness. It was heartbreaking for Lily to see. "Look!" she exclaimed. "We're here! I'm home!"

Lily smiled. She liked this girl. "We're both home. Come on, let's get to the Feast. I can't imagine you want to miss that."

"Too right you are," Claire said, sending Lily a cheeky grin.

Lily just laughed. This girl was good for her. "See you later, Claire. Let me know if you ever need help, got it?"

"Okay. Thanks, Lily."

And with that, the girls parted ways. Claire headed to the Ravenclaw table, while Lily headed to the Gryffindor table. She headed to her friends, but chose a seat on the edge of the group on the left side of Adalyn, instead of in between Adalyn and Alice, which is normally where she sat. Lily wasn't ready to handle that. She knew she would feel like she was being smothered. She needed to be able to breathe. Her chest constricted when she saw who her friends were sitting next to because it reminded her of the train ride, which reminded her of the summer after 5th year. Her friends were sitting next to the Marauders, which was not uncommon because both Alice and Adalyn were on good terms with all of them. Remus was like Lily's older brother, and Lily loved Sirius dearly. Sirius was Lily's best guy friend. Many people thought it was odd that she loved Sirius, but hated James. To be honest, Lily loved both James' and Sirius' antics, but James sometimes just didn't leave her alone, giving her that smothered feeling that she had just shied away from. Lily needed her space sometimes. She just required more since the beginning of 6th year.

"Hey, Lils!" Sirius very nearly screamed.

Wincing at the loud noise, she just gave a small wave. She couldn't help but smile inwardly, though. Sirius was always worth a smile, at the very least. She didn't really want to talk to her friends, yet. Talking to Claire was easy, she didn't know anything about Lily. Her friends, however, could read her pretty easily, especially Adalyn and, for some odd reason, James.

"Hiya, Blackie," Lily replied, whispering, with the faintest trace of a smirk on her face.

"Why were you late, Lils? And I'd like to remind you that you forgot to tell me that you're Head Girl," Adalyn said, with a slight smile. She was just lightly messing with Lily so that Lily would brighten up a bit.

Lily rolled her eyes, seeing straight through her friend's antics. She shot Adalyn a look that plainly told her so, but answered none-the-less for the benefit of her other friends. However, her voice was just over a whisper. "I was late because I was making a new friend. Her name's Claire and she's a second year Ravenclaw. I didn't tell you about the Head Girl thing because it wasn't important. There were many other things at the time that were far more important, such as my bloody sister getting engaged and the one year anniversary of—" Lily couldn't finish. Her chest became tight again, and she was on the edge of tears, but she wouldn't let herself. She would not be seen as weak; Lily felt that she was far to teary lately, it simply was not good.

Adalyn scooted over to her best friend and began rubbing her back, while everyone else looked at Lily in pure shock. They had never seen Lily cry, ever. No one, except for Adalyn, had even seen her tear up before. Lily was the strong one of the group; she was always there when anyone needed her. Whatever happened to Lily during the summer before 6th year really must have been horrible. They, however, did not know that two things had happened that nearly destroyed Lily—all of them only knew that one of them existed. Lily did feel slightly bad about not telling anyone about the second thing, especially not telling Adalyn, but she couldn't handle their sympathy. Even right now, how the others were reacting, was too much for Lily. Sure Lily had a loving family growing up, but it was still difficult for her during the summers, and most that that had to do with her magic, something Lily was not very happy about because it meant choosing between two parts of herself.

Lily was saved from answering any questions about anything when the sorting began. She hadn't even seen the first years come in the Great Hall. The sorting hat sang his song—it was virtually the same as it had been last year: stand together and you will become strong, stand apart and you will be weak.

"Adams, Rachel!" McGonagall called out, and so the sorting began. Lily clapped softly as all of the other Gryffindors went wild when Brandon Flowers, Mark Stoermer, Dave Keuning, Ronnie Vannucci, Hayley Smith, Ashley Riordian, Mary Fuster, and Hannah Ridings were sorted into Gryffindor. It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see more Gryffindors, it was just that she wasn't in the mood to be particularly happy. The sorting ended Amanda Zink going into Hufflepuff.

As soon as the Hufflepuffs quieted down, Dumbledore stood up. "I do have a few start of term announcements to make, but I think my time would be wasted making them now. So, Tuck in!" And with that, endless amounts of every type of food imaginable appeared upon all of the table. The teenage boys (A/N: no offense, guys) across the hall ate more than their fair share and had competitions to see who could eat the most. The Marauders were not to be forgotten. One of them had won the school wide competition every year since they were in 1st year. (A/N: no offense either, girls) The girls, meanwhile, varied a bit more in their eating habits. There were the girls who just ate and ate because they loved food, there were the girls who said, "Oh, I can't eat too much! There are too many calories in this! I'll gain weight!", and then there were the girls who just didn't give a damn about what they were eating or how much—they were hungry. There were a select few, both boys and girls alike, who just picked at their food, without really eating any. Lily was one of these people. Most of her friends knew better than to push her to eat, but Callie would simply not have it.

"Come on, Lils! You've got to eat! It's the start of term feast! Don't go anorexic on me!" Callie pleaded.

She just received an extremely dark look in return, but Callie simply took it to mean "leave me alone". Lily and Adalyn, because she could read Lily like a open book, knew that the dark look meant "shut up, leave me the hell alone, and take your own advice." Both Lily and Adalyn knew that Callie was either anorexic or had been at some point, but Callie would never admit it. She simply blamed other things for her being skinny. A super fast metabolism was her favorite excuse, and therefore, the one most often used.

Once the desserts were finished, the tables were cleared away, and Dumbledore stood up. "As I said before, I have a few start of term announcements I would like to make. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Maurders. Peter, Remus, and Sirius all shared mischievous grins. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the new caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. He also has created a list of banned things that, I am told, contains 456 items. The entire list is posted on Mr. Filch's door for anyone that would like to see the master list. Finally, all Quidditch trials will be held when the captains decide. Madam Hooch has requested for you to not ask her, but ask your captains instead. Now, I'm sure it has been a long day for you all. Come on, pip pip! Off to bed! Your classes begin tomorrow!"

The sound of benches scraping against the marble floor echoed across the room as all of the students stood up. Lily groaned quietly. She wished that she could just go to her dorm room and sleep, but she didn't know where it was, so she couldn't.

Almost as if he read her thoughts, James said, "Hey, Evans. McGonagall said to go to Dumbledore's office after the feast to get our assignments for the year and to find out where our dorms are."

"Thank Merlin," Lily muttered under her breath. "Okay, let's go then." The last part she said a bit louder so that she could be heard, but not by much.

If it had been any other normal day, Lily would have led the way, and James would have messed with her the whole time. But alas, today was not a normal day. Lily didn't lead the way. She didn't even utter a word, which meant conversation was difficult, because, as James discovered, it was tricky to have a one sided conversation. In the end, James gave up right as they approached the gargoyle statue.

"Acid Pop," James said clearly.

Lily sent him a questioning look as the gargoyle sprang to let the two of them pass up the spiral staircase.

"McGonagall told me earlier," he explained as he knocked.

"Ah, come in Miss Evans and Mr. Potter. Please take a seat. Would you care for a lemon drop?" Dumbledore said, as the two of them entered his expansive office. Lily politely refused, but James took one. Judging by the look on his face, he seemed to love them. "Well, then. Let us get to business, shall we? First, I must congratulate both of you on becoming Heads. It's a lot of responsibility and I know that you can handle it. However, knowing your… past…, I shall hope that you can work out our differences and work together cooperatively." Dumbledore paused before going on. "Now, seeing as you are in charge of all of the prefects, I wish that you will have weekly meetings with them to tally points, take care of detentions, etc. Also, I wish that before each holiday or event, we will have a meeting to decide what will be done, if anything. Lastly, I assume that you both know that the Heads share living quarters. Since both of the Heads are Gryffindors this year, the Heads' room is located near the Gryffindor common room. It is five portraits away from the Fat Lady portrait. It is a portrait of Lady Morgana. You can't miss it. James, I'm assuming that you know where it is, so will you do me the favor of showing Miss Evans where it is located. And would you mind terribly waiting just a moment outside while I have a word with Miss Evans?"

"No problem. I'll just wait at the bottom of the staircase. Night, professor," James said politely.

"Goodnight, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore replied as James disappeared behind the massive wooden door that was the entrance and exit to Dumbledore's office. "Now, Miss Evans, I can already see the questioning look on your face. I simply wanted to ask how you have been holding up recently."

"I'm sorry, professor, but I don't quite understand what you mean," Lily replied quietly, faking innocence, though she had a pretty good idea what Dumbledore was referring to.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought your mother told you. She sent me a letter at the beginning of last term and last week about your two previous summers. I was terribly saddened to hear that such a young and innocent soul such as yourself has been though everything that you have been though in the past two summers. I know it hasn't been easy for you," Dumbledore replied.

Lily noticed the usual twinkle in his eyes was gone. For some reason or another, this greatly saddened Lily. It almost made her lose the last little bit of hope she had in her body. "I suppose I'm doing alright, professor. Well, I guess I should say I'm doing as well as I can. You're right, it hasn't been easy, and the worst part is that you are the only person here that knows the full story," Lily replied shakily. Seeing her headmaster about to object, she continued on. "I know that I should tell my friends, that I _need_ to tell my friends, but for some reason I just can't. I think the hardest part is their sympathy. I abhor sympathy, it makes me feel weak, like I can't hold my own."

"Miss Evans, may I make a suggestion?"

Lily nodded her head to show her consent.

"While it is not my place to tell you what to do, speaking from experience, I think it would be wise to tell your friends about everything that has happened. If you can't tell all of them, then at least fill Ms. Reeves (A/N: that's Adalyn, guys) in on the rest of the story. I believe your friendship would strengthen even more if you told her."

"I'll try, professor. I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best," Lily replied to the wise man's words.

"Excellent. That is all anybody should ever ask for, anyway. Well, I do believe we've kept Mr. Potter waiting long enough."

"Thank you, professor, for everything," Lily said quietly, standing up.

"Anytime, Miss Evans, anytime."

"Goodnight, professor."

"Sweet dreams, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said. Lily noticed that the twinkle was in his eyes again.

As Lily descended the staircase, she thought about what her headmaster said. It was a lot to tell anyone, both of them knew that. Lily knew, and was pretty sure Dumbledore knew it as well, that it was difficult for her to trust people, even those who were close to her heart.

Lily was too wrapped up in what Dumbledore told her to see or to even hear James greet her as she stepped into the corridor. She didn't even notice where she was going, even after James repeatedly called her name, trying to get her to follow him. Finally, because he didn't know what else to do, James ran up to Lily, and tugged on her hand. Lily jumped and whipped around to face him. The only words James could think of to describe her expression were pure terror. She really must have thought he was going to hurt her.

"Sweet Merlin, Potter. Don't do that!" Lily cried, trying desperately to get her emotions under control.

"Sorry! I was just trying to get your attention because you weren't responding and you were walking in the wrong direction," James explained hesitantly.

"Oh," came the soft reply. "Will you lead the way, then?"

This startled James for many reasons. First, because Lily Evans wasn't yelling at him or even arguing with him. She was simply letting him take the lead. Another reason it startled James was because of just the way she looked right now. Lily was standing in the middle of the corridor, rubbing her wrist gently, as if she was remembering something. Looking into her eyes, James saw just how much the past two summers must have affected her. Her normally bright, sparkly emerald green eyes now showed no spark or even happiness. Instead, they were sad, and the color was significantly darker. Her eyes were almost a muddy green now. What James wouldn't give to make her happy again.

"Um..The dorm's this way," he said hesitantly.

Lily nodded her head to show that she heard him, and she followed him down the dark corridor. She was still too wrapped up in her own thoughts to have a conversation. Lily just couldn't decide whether or not to tell Adalyn the whole story. On the one hand, it would be nice to be able to talk to someone about everything, but on the other hand, there was the sympathy issue. She could just head Adalyn saying, "Oh my god, Lils! That's horrible! I'm so sorry!" In addition to that, there was the whole trust issue. Most of the time, Lily told different people different small pieces. That way it kept them happy, and no one knew the whole story. She was afraid that if someone knew the whole story, they would spread it around and everyone would know. Lily loved Adalyn dearly, but she also knew that no matter what, Lily would never tell Adalyn everything openly and willingly. It had taken her 6 months to tell her even the smallest part, for Merlin's sake. Lily groaned aloud. This was all too confusing.

"You alright? You seem kind of….off," James inquired.

Lily sent him a questioning look. She wasn't used to James being…normal to her. It was bizarre. "I suppose. Well, as well as I can be, I guess. Dumbledore gave me a lot to think about…" she trailed off.

James' hazel eyes were full of worry, but he knew it wasn't his place to say anything or ask any questions. He decided to tell Adalyn in hopes that she could rescue Lily. "Well, here we are. What do you want the password to be?"

"Um… how about _despero_?" Lily suggested. Seeing the confused look on James' face, she explained. "It's Latin for loss of hope, to despair, etc."

To say that James was shocked would be an understatement. Lily's simple words showed him just exactly how much pain she was in. For Lily Evans, of all people, to give up on hope was shocking. Lily was known across the school for having endless amounts of hope and giving people second chances. It sort of made James want to give up on his own hope when he saw how much Lily lost. He found himself nodding just because he was too deep in emotions to form a coherent sentence.

Lily turned to Lady Morgana. "Hi, I'm Lily Evans and this is James Potter. We're the heads this year," she spoke quietly.

"Ah, yes, Dumbledore mentioned it to me. What would you like your password to be?" Lady Morgana responded. Her voice was easily ten times louder than Lily's.

"Can it be _despero_?"

"Heavens no, child! You must have hope! Hope is what will keep you going! How about _spero_? It's much better," Lady Morgana barked out.

Lily nodded and then nudged James to tell him the password was _spero_. "What does it mean?" James asked, coming out of his thoughts.

"Hope," Lily whispered. "We all need some."

A faint smile flashed across James' handsome face as the portrait opened. There was a glimpse of the old Lily Evans. James looked around his new common room. The soft colors of red and gold covered all of the furniture and walls. The walls were sometimes blocked by huge bookshelves that were filled with books on pranks, transfiguration, and DADA on one side and charms, potions, and healing on the other. The two identical stairways to their dormitories were on either side of a large fireplace. Golden trim lined the floors and walls in a way that fit in nicely with the dark birch floor.

"Welcome to the Heads' Common Room," said James softly. With that he dragged himself to the door that had a golden plate, upon which _James_ was inscribed, above its dark mahogany wooden frame. The room looked exactly like his room at the Potter Manor. In the center of the far wall was James' king size bed. It had a wood frame that was mahogany, and it's mattress was memory foam. The color scheme was obvious, James was a Gryffindor through and through. There were a few posters on the wall of bands, Quidditch teams, etc, but James thought the room was missing something. It felt almost eerie in a way. James looked at Lily who looked completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Lily stood in the same place for several moments, looking in awe at the common room. It was nearly the size of her entire house. Once she was over her shock, though, she looked around the room. She looked at the two bookshelves in amusement. One was clearly for her and the other for James. Looking around the room some more, Lily saw a duplicate of her favorite chair from the Gryffindor common room. There was another chair, a different one, sitting opposite from hers. She assumed that one to be James' favorite chair, but she wasn't entirely sure. She let out an audible gasp as she saw the far corner of the room. There was a window seat near by the corner. The view was astounding, Lily discovered as she ran over to the window. She found herself looking down upon the grounds. On her left was the Quidditch pitch, and on her right was the lake. Both places were Lily's sanctuaries, but no one knew about the first one. It was yet another secret that no one knew about Lily. But the window wasn't what attracted Lily to the corner. Next to the window made her forget about the world around her. She discovered five guitars in the corner: two acoustics, two electrics, and one bass. One acoustic and one electric were left handed. It should have raised a question in Lily's mind that there were two right handed guitars, but it didn't matter. At the moment, nothing mattered to Lily but the two guitars for her. Lily absolutely adored music, and she learned to play guitar when she was 7. That was when her father bought her a child size one. She still had it in her room at her parent's house for the sentimental value. Lily grabbed the lefty electric and began playing her favorite song, _Let the Flames Begin_ by her favorite band, Paramore.

Leaning against his door frame, James watched Lily with a slight smile on his face. For once, she seemed to be happy. Thinking back on it, James didn't think he had ever seen Lily truly happy. Sure, he had seen her pretend to be happy, but never to the point where her emerald green eyes were sparkling and she looked as if she was finally at peace with herself.

As Lily strummed the last chord, she looked up to see that James had been watching her. She looked absolutely horrified.

Seeing her face, James called out, "Lily, wait!"

"What?" Lily asked tentatively, looking anywhere but at him.

"Look, seeing as we're Heads this year, can we at least be civil towards each other? Or perhaps even friends?" James asked hopefully.

Tired of living in the past, Lily made a quick decision. "Sure. But, I would like _some _ground rules, if that's okay," she replied, her voice just above a whisper.

Completely ecstatic, James replied, "Of course."

"The obvious ones first, don't ask me out, don't show off in front of me, all of that stuff. If I pull away, don't talk to anybody, any of that, you HAVE to leave me alone. I do it for a reason. Oh, and for the love of Merlin, don't tell anyone about the guitars thing. Adalyn doesn't even know about it. Please?" Lily begged.

"My dear flower, however could you think otherwise?" James asked, in a highly fake pompous tone.

Lily giggled, and a small smile crept onto her face. "Thanks, James. Sweet Dreams." She turned and headed to the other door; the one which also held a golden plate, but this one said _Lily_. As she opened the door, she gasped. Her room was decorated exactly as it was in her old home. There was a white four poster placed in the center of the far wall. The posters even were the same: wizard and muggle ones, alike. Not only was her room decorated like her old one, but it also had touches of her dorm. There was a maple chest at the foot of her bed. The ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky, just like the Great Hall, a charm she placed on her dormitory in 4th year. Her clothes were already placed in the walk in closet, just like at home.

She slipped into her pajamas and snuggled under the covers. On this night for the past 7 years, Lily would lay awake thinking about what was to come for her this year. Tonight was no exception. But this year was going to be. She had no idea what was in store for her this year. Today was proof of that enough. This morning started out as a typical day for her, but as the day progressed, it became more and more strange for her, ending with her deciding to be friends with James. _That_ was some food for thought. Why on earth had she become friends with her sworn enemy? Perhaps it was because she was over the constant fighting and the never ending hating. Or perhaps it was because she was tired of dwelling in the past. Whatever the reason was, there were no two ways about it: Lily Evans and James Potter had finally become friends. With that last thought, Lily drifted into a nice long sleep.


	2. 2: Of caffeine highs & muggle expression

Chapter 2—Of Caffeine highs and muggle expressions

**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling so I don't own the world of HP. And the credit for the lyrics goes to Three Days Grace and Paramore.**

Early the next morning, the sun peeked through Lily's curtains. Lily woke, feeling refreshed and ready to take on her first day of classes. But as the memories of what happened yesterday came rushing back to her, the wind was knocked out of Lily. _Dammit_! Lily thought to herself. She was tired of being weak. Ever since that fateful summer, she wasn't as strong as she used to be. Why couldn't she just get over what happened? Why did it have to affect her so much? Why couldn't she just be like Petunia? Petunia seemed to get over it plenty well. Lily was grateful that her parents didn't know because she wouldn't be able to stand their reactions. Her mum would mollycoddle her and smother Lily. Her dad would suddenly look old as the shock of what happened came crashing down over him, and then he would become outraged that someone did that to his little girl. All in all, it was too much sympathy for Lily. She wanted to just be able to move on and forget the past. She wanted to forget his face, forget the feeling of a broken wrist, forget the feeling of betrayal, and most of all, she wanted to forget her role. Her guilt haunted her through every moment of her life. WHY had she listened? Why, for once in her life, did she let someone else tell her what to do? Lily let out a loud sigh. Why couldn't she just forget all of it? Lily clenched her jaw. She was tired of him controlling her life and how she was feeling. She would be damned if she didn't live her life the way she wanted to. Lily promised herself that this year was going to be different than last year. Last year, she spent the whole year as a shell of a person. She was wrapped up in her thoughts, and she rarely interacted with anyone. This year was going to be different. This year, she was going to take control of her life, and live it the way SHE wanted to live it.

With those thoughts, Lily got ready for the day. Keeping her resolution in mind, Lily decided to be a little different that she normally was. Sure, she was going to wear her robes, but where was the harm in shortening her skirt by ½ an inch? She also decided to wear her hair down today, setting it in large curls that bounced every time she moved. She applied some mascara, eyeliner, and clear lip gloss to humor Adalyn. It was certainly going to be fun to see everyone's reactions. Humming the tune to one of her favorite songs, she clipped on a necklace and grabbed her bag. She glanced around the room to see if James was still there, but seeing as he wasn't, she headed down to the Great Hall.

As she entered the Great Hall, she saw Adalyn, Alice, and Callie sitting across from the Marauders. The Marauders' backs were to Lily. An idea quickly formed in her head. A slightly alarming mischievous grin crept onto Lily's face. She crept quietly towards her friends, and when she was close enough, she motioned for them not to let the Marauders know that she was there. Once she was within arms reach of Sirius, she placed her hands over his eyes.

"Guess who, Siri?" Lily giggled in a very un-Lily-like manor.

Sirius audibly groaned. "Susana, how many times have I told you? Leave me alone!"

"But Siri! I lurrve you!!" Lily giggled, trying desperately to keep her cover.

Sirius finally grabbed Lily's hands off of his eyes and spun around to find Lily laughing with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Hiya, Blackie!" Lily laughed. "Who's this Susana, huh? Would it perhaps be Susana Howery? I heard she's the president of your fan club."

"Blackie?" Sirius spluttered.

"What? I thought it was cute," Lily replied innocently.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Lily Evans?" Callie asked.

All of the others nodded their heads in agreement.

"What? I'm right here. See? I've still got my obnoxious red hair and green eyes. I'm still me!" Lily denied.

"Lils, I think she was referring to the personality switch you've decided to grace us with," Adalyn said gently.

"Oooh. Well, Emo Lily wanted to take a break. After all, she's been around for a year or so now. And I know I got bored with her. I'm sure you lot felt the same. Mischievous Lily wanted a turn. I _guess_ if you want Emo Lily back, I'm sure I could convince her. She'd love to spend more time with you guys," Lily rambled.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Chill, Lils. We were all shocked, that's all. We were all expecting to have to convince you to eat, let alone trying to get you to laugh," Remus cut in.

"Not to mention keeping all knives away from your wrists," Sirius muttered underneath his breath. He was extremely fortunate that Lily didn't hear him.

"Right, then. Now that that's settled. Mischievous Lily is flattered that you guys like her. Alice, will you pass the chocolate milk? I really want some," Lily said happily.

The other seven teenagers exchanged looks of bewilderment. What on earth happened to Lily? All of them, especially the Marauders, were not used to a hyperactive Lily. This was slightly unnerving.

"Oi! I saw that look!" Lily cried out, with a fake pout on her face. "Look, I know what it looks—why can't I stop saying look?" Lily wondered.

"Did someone cast a cheering charm on her?" James exclaimed.

"Nah, this isn't a cheering charm. It's a completely different kind of happiness. This is partly caffeine high, part something else. Lils, did someone slip you coffee or something? Or did you convince the house elves to let you have coffee?" Adalyn asked. Out of all of the other teenagers, Adalyn was the most comfortable with a hyper Lily; after all, she had seen it many times over the summer.

Lily gave Adalyn a sheepish look. "I wanted coffee! I needed caffeine! And you weren't paying attention to me, so I stole some from the Hufflepuff table on the way over."

The Marauders' mouths hung open.

"What?" Lily asked innocently. "All I had to do was flirt a little with some 5th year, and he gave me anything I wanted," she smirked.

Adalyn shot Lily a look that was scarily reminiscent of McGonagall, while the Marauders remained completely shocked.

"Okay, before I get any more looks or you lot exchange any more looks behind my back—yes, I saw that, BLACKIE!—I swear I'm not crazy. Well, perhaps I am… Do you guys think I'm crazy?" Lily rambled.

"Lily! Focus! Finish what you were saying!" James exclaimed.

"Right! Okay, I maybe borderline crazy, but I know what I'm doing. Adalyn, you're the only one who's going to really understand this, but I'll say it to all of you. I'm tired of letting him control my life. Even when I'm in Scotland and he's still in England—I think he's still there, anyway—he was controlling my life. He was making me feel weak, skittish, and the list goes on and on. Basically, think of any negative adjectives and he probably made me feel like that. I'm not saying that I'm going to ignore what happened. Merlin knows I'll never forget it, but I'll be dammed if I don't get to live my life the way I want to, got it? This is MY life, and no one else gets to tell me how to run it!" Lily explained.

However, while she was ranting, Lily wasn't paying attention to how loud her voice was getting, nor was she paying attention to how many people were listening to her. When her rant was done, the entire Great Hall applauded her. Lily blushed to the roots of her hair.

"Well said, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said. Lily noticed the twinkle was back in his eyes.

McGonagall stood up from the teacher's table and began handing out the schedules.

"Ohh! Yay!! My schedule is awesome!!" Lily squealed.

"Ah, there's Lily Evans, again," James smirked.

"OI! SHUT IT!" Lily said indignantly.

James just smirked.

"Oi! You two! Stop flirting or else we're going to be late to Charms!" Callie called out, smirking.

Lily spluttered. "He…Me…Eww!!!"

"Nice, Evans. You sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself," Remus laughed.

"Oi! Are you insulting my flirting skills? 'Cause I'm a really good flirter when the guy's someone who I'm interested in," Lily giggled. "You see, I get real close to him like this," Lily said in a sultry voice as she leaned closer to Remus. "And then I—"

"Okay, Lils! Enough of that!" James cut in.

"Awww, is wittle Jamsie jealous? I can make it allll better," Lily purred.

James gulped.

"Lily! Charms! NOW!" Adalyn bellowed.

"Spoil sport, but ooo! Okay! I love Charms!" Lily giggled as she bounced to Charms.

As she was exiting the Great Hall, Sirius noticed something. "Everyone stop for a minute. I just noticed…Red shortened her skirt today."

"No way! She's Lily Evans!" Callie cried out.

"Sirius maybe a bit of a dolt, but he sure knows a shortened skirt when he sees one," Remus jumped in, rescuing his friend.

"Thanks…I think," Sirius replied.

"Anytime," Remus grinned.

"Guys, back to Lily's hyperness," Alice said.

Before she could say anything more, however, all of the Marauders turned Adalyn. "Yeah, what the bloody hell was that?" they all asked in unison.

"I guess you guys have never seen Lily on caffeine, have you?" Adalyn laughed.

They all shook their heads. "Nope, never." They all still had looks of pure shock on their faces.

"Oh, come on. She wasn't THAT bad. She wasn't nearly as bad as she is when she's drunk. Now that's a sight to see," Alice laughed.

"That wasn't bad?" James yelped.

"Evan's gotten drunk? Maybe she's not as much of a goody two shoes as we thought," Sirius mused.

"As entertaining as this conversation is, we have to leave NOW if we want to make it to Charms without Flitwick getting mad," Callie piped up.

The seven teenagers looked around to see the entire Great Hall empty. "Crap!" Adalyn yelled. And they all sprinted to Charms, which, luckily, wasn't too far away from the Great Hall.

*_*_*_*

The classes passed quickly or they passed by really slowly, depending on who you spoke to. If you spoke with Lily, she would have said they flew by like a flock of phoenixes, but that was simply because her hyper mood did not deteriorate throughout the entire day. If you talked to anyone else, the day inched by because of the boring classes and Lily's never ending antics.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Peter moaned, after Lily had just conspired with Peeves to throw water balloons at the Marauders.

"Nah," Alice replied, shaking her head. "Between the coffee and the high of taking control of her life, there's not really any way that you can combat that. She's too damn happy."

"But, I'm glad for her. I haven't seen her this happy in ages. The last time I saw her happy was—"Adalyn stopped, horrified.

"What, Addy?" Remus asked.

"I haven't seen her this happy since an event after 5th year that was the beginning of a long chain of events that began Lily's depression. Where is she?" Adalyn muttered distractedly.

"Huh?" Sirius said. "I'm totally confused."

"That's the point, you dolt. It's not my story to tell, so I'm not giving anything away that you didn't already know," Adalyn retorted. "I gotta go. When she crashes, it's gunna be bad. REALLY BAD." And with that, Adalyn disappeared.

The remaining teenagers turned towards each other.

"Why do I get the feeling that there's a lot that we're not being told?" James asked.

"My dear Watson, I think you're right!" Remus muttered.

The others just stared at him. "Oh, where are Addy and Lily when you need them? Muggle reference, you lot."

"Ohhh," Sirius said, as if he had just had an epiphany.

"Anyway, back to the point. Callie, Alice, do you know what's going on?" James asked.

"Don't look at me. Lily doesn't tell me anything anymore. She stopped telling me stuff after 5th year," Callie replied, acidly. It was obvious she was not happy about this current situation.

"Look, Callie. Don't be mad. Lily's just going through a difficult time. Just let her be," Alice soothed.

"You're always making excuses for her! She just doesn't trust me anymore!" Callie wailed. And then she turned around and stalked off.

"What—?" James asked.

"Do you really want to know?" Alice asked, sighing.

"Yes," Sirius answered immediately. "What? I like gossip!" he added, seeing the looks on his friends' faces.

"I swear, you're such a girl sometimes, Sirius," Adalyn laughed.

"It would explain why he's so good with the ladies," Remus smirked. "He's partly one himself."

"Oi! I think I take offense to that!" Sirius yelped.

"You think?" James asked, shaking his head.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, Alice, can we get back to the gossip?" Sirius asked.

"One track mind, I tell you," James muttered to Remus. They both laughed.

Sirius shot him an evil look, but motioned for Alice to tell the story.

Alice sighed. "Okay, before I tell you lot anything, I need you to swear that you won't mention this to anyone. ESPECIALLY Callie or Lily. Got it?"

"We swear on the Marauder's Code," the three of them said in unison.

"Alright then. First thing's first. I need to give you a little bit of background about Callie and Lily's friendship. They met on the train in our first year. Pretty basic beginning. But starting around 4th year or so, the two of them started having fights. These 'fights' weren't truly fights, it was mainly a matter of Lily standing up for herself every once in a while."

"Lily not standing up for herself?" James asked. "That's unusual."

"The sad thing is, it's really not. The Lily you guys see is completely different from the Lily we see. And that Lily is completely different from the Lily at home. At school, to everyone but her friends, she puts off this Ice Queen aura that I'm sure you guys have noticed. She's not really like that. She just does it so that she gets hurt less often. But you lot should keep in mind that just because you're seeing more of her, doesn't mean you're seeing all of her. I know I don't know all of Lily, and I've been her friend for 6 years now. Hell, I don't even think Adalyn knows all of Lily, and we all know how close those two are. Anyway, back to the Callie story. When Lily's around her friends, sure she's strong, but she will bend in any which way to make her friends happy. She would sacrifice her own life if it would benefit her friends more. So, when Lily and Callie have these spats, it's really because Lily gets tired of always conforming to Callie's wishes. I'm Callie's best friend, and I know that she can be manipulative. As I said before, these spats have happened ever since 4th year, so they're not really that huge of a deal. It's just a matter of realizing that the two of them are just too different to be the closest of friends. However, at the end of last year, in May, I think, Callie and Lily had a massive fight. No one's really sure how it started, but according to Lily, it started with her leaving Transfiguration without saying bye before heading to Ancient Runes. Apparently, Lily didn't say bye because Callie snapped at her, so she figured that Callie wanted her space. Callie ran after Lily and started yelling at her, saying that the two of them couldn't be friends anymore if Lily didn't start telling her stuff. Of course, Lily didn't react to that too well. She lost her temper at Callie, and I think she called Callie an 'immature second year who's incredibly narcissistic and manipulative.'"

The Marauders had scandalous looks on their faces. Sure they had seen Lily loose her temper at James, but never had she lost her temper at one of her friends.

"Wow…" James muttered.

"Yeah, it was really bad. There were several screaming matches for the next couple of days between the two of them, throwing hexes and insults at each other. My guess is Callie said something that hit really close home to Lily's heart and Lily reacted. I'm not entirely sure because the two of them have different stories about what happened."

"Holy crap!" Remus said.

"I'm not done. It gets worse," Alice said sadly. It pained her to see her two friends falling apart. "Lily finally gave in after a couple of days of hexing and insulting. I'm pretty sure she just wanted her friend back. I think she also wanted to hear an apology from Callie, too, and who wouldn't? Apparently, Callie ranted at Lily for about an hour, talking about how Lily was a shitty friend, etc. It was truly horrific. And then, the next day, Callie expects the two of them to be cool. Needless to say, Lily was not happy about that. Lily basically told Callie she had to learn how to apologize. I don't think Callie ever once apologized in their spats, I'm pretty sure it was Lily always going to Callie." Alice sighed. "Callie's right, though. Lily's never trusted her since."

"And with good reason," Sirius muttered.

"Yeah, it's just sad. To see the two of them to fall apart like that," Remus said.

"You have no idea," Alice sighed.

James was still in shock. How had he missed this? He'd taken a fancy to Lily since 5th year, and he often watched her to find out more about her. But apparently, he didn't watch her that closely. Otherwise, he would have seen this. Or at the very least, he would have seen how much pain she was. It completely baffled him. He voiced his thoughts.

"James, you've got to remember Lily is a master at hiding her emotions. I think the fact that yesterday was the first time you've seen her tear up proves that. She's a strong one, Lily is. And she doesn't have the reputation of an Ice Queen for nothing. She's incredibly good at convincing the world that she's fine when she's really not," Alice replied gently.

James had a distressed look on her face. "But I want to get past that! I want to know WHY she won't let anyone in! I want—" James cried out.

"James," Alice interrupted. "I know you do. We all know. And that's why we haven't jumped in. We've blocked all of Lily's other suitors because we know that you're right for her. YOU are the one that she needs to lean on. You're the one that she needs to be able to go to and tell you everything."

"Thanks, Alice. You're a life saver," James replied gratefully.

"No problem!" she replied brightly. "But I must get going. I promised Frank I would meet him after dinner. I'll see you lot later!" And with that, she disappeared, leaving the Marauders' minds whirling about Lily.

*_*_*_*

Adalyn went running to the Heads' dormitory. Realizing she didn't know the password, she began begging Lady Morgana. "Come on, please! Lily's going to crash, and I need to be there when she does! Can you let me in just this once?"

"Child, you have got to learn some patience. If you wait one moment, I shall go find Miss Evans and let her know of your waiting. Happy?" Lady Morgana gently scolded Adalyn.

"Extremely. Thank you. I didn't mean to be so rude," she apologized.

Lady Morgana gave a slight nod before disappearing to find Lily. A moment later, the portrait was thrown open, and Lily could be seen bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

"What's up, Addy?" Lily asked innocently.

"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure that you are okay," she replied quietly. Now that she was here, she wasn't exactly sure how she was going to broach the subject with Lily.

Lily simply gave Adalyn a look. She knew exactly what she was up to. "Addy," Lily sighed. "I meant what I said at breakfast today. I wasn't just on a caffeine high, I was serious. I'm tired of him controlling my life. I want—no, I deserve—to choose how to live my life. I'm not going to crash, this is MY life. Okay?"

"Right, Lils. I'm sorry. You know how worried I get," Adalyn replied in a small voice.

Lily simply smiled. "Addy, I dunno about you, but I'm craving a visit to the kitchen. You coming?"

"But of course," Adalyn grinned.

*_*_*_*

As days turned into weeks, Lily's mood didn't diminish. Sure, she calmed down some after her caffeine high was over, but the thrill of taking control of her life seemed to put her in a permanently good mood. She regained the spark in her emerald green eyes, and she was just in general very bubbly. These days, it wasn't an uncommon sight to see Lily just slightly bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet while talking to someone. Classes were easier for her, now that she could completely focus on them. Everything seemed to be passing in a daze.

Her relationships with people started becoming stronger. She and Adalyn were practically attached at the hip. Alice and Lily were as good of friends as ever, but she and Callie weren't so strong. Lily still didn't completely trust Callie, not that Lily would ever say that to her face, though.

However, those changes weren't as monumental as the change in James' and Lily's relationship. She was slowly starting to let him in. Well, as much as she let Sirius and Remus in, that is. It seemed that their Heads' duties were pushing them closer and closer. Lily herself hadn't particularly noticed it; she was simply floating through life, completely happy. But she should have known that it wouldn't last long.

"Hey, Lils. Can I talk to you for a second?" Callie asked her, as the two of them were leaving Arithmacy.

"Sure. What's up?" Lily asked.

"No, not here. Follow me," Callie replied mysteriously. She pulled Lily by the wrist behind a tapestry, which lead to a secret passage way.

Lily stopped walking. She was baffled by Callie's mysteriousness. "Seriously, Callie. You're scaring me. What's up?"

Callie turned around. "Why don't I ask you the same question?" she asked acidly.

Knowing that Callie's tone couldn't mean anything good, Lily stuttered, "I..I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Callie."

"What do you mean you don't know?!? How can you not? You've been so different lately! You don't talk to me anymore! I can't remember the last time we actually talked and hung out just us!" Callie replied hysterically. "You don't tell me anything anymore! Not since after 5th year," she paused here to throw a dirty look at Lily.

Lily, however, was growing more and more angry. Her usually sparkly round emerald green eyes became dangerously narrow slits. "How dare you!" Lily hissed. "It is not your place to say anything about that to me! No one knows what happened that summer, and you've just assured me that you will never EVER know what happened!"

Callie shot Lily a highly affronted look, but she decided to let that comment pass. "But you never tell me anything anymore!! We never talk about anything!! What did I do?!?"

"What makes you think the matter involves you? Did you stop to think for one second that the world does not revolve around you?!?" Lily shrieked. Her famous temper was coming out now, and Callie, admittedly, was slightly scared.

"Bullshit! You know this has everything to do with me!!" Callie cried out.

"Okay, fine. You wanna play that way? We will. How about this? FUCK OFF. You have no right to criticize me for my actions and what I do or do not choose to tell ANYONE, let alone a useless example of a human like yourself," Lily spat.

"Oh, come on, Lily! Just tell me what I did wrong!" Callie pleaded.

"No. You should know what you did. If you don't know, well, then, my point was proven. Either way, just _stay out of my life_. I'm tired of you causing so much drama," Lily replied, her tone growing cold. And with that, she turned on her heal and left the secret passageway.

Callie slid down the wall slowly. _What had she just done? All she wanted to do was to speak her mind, but now…. She lost one of her closest friends._

*_*_*_*

Lily was nearly in a full out sprint as she raced towards the Heads' common room. Her anger was bubbling over. All she could do was to make it back to Lady Morgana and then to start blasting her muggle MP3 player. In a rage of fury, she grabbed her electric guitar and started playing along to the song.

_Every time we lie awake  
After every hit we take  
Every feeling that I get  
But I haven't missed you yet_

_  
Every roommate kept awake  
By every sigh and scream we make  
All the feelings that I get  
But I still don't miss you yet_

_  
Only when I stop to think about it_

_  
I hate everything about you  
Why do I love you  
I hate everything about you  
Why do I love you  
_ It _was_ slightly alarming how Lily's voice could match the singer's so well. Her normally soft, musical voice was now near screamo as she sang with pure hatred in her voice. It created an interesting scene for James to walk in on.

*_*_*_*

James said, "Spero," to Lady Morgana as he entered the Heads' common room. He only took a few steps in before he stopped. His mouth fell open. To put it simply, he was completely and utterly stunned by Lily's guitar skills and the hatred that was pouring from her voice. Admittedly, he didn't know Lily well, but he knew her well enough to know that something was severely wrong. It was not everyday your average Hogwarts girl would listen to a song like this, let alone sing it as well as she did. Then again, Lily Evans was not your average Hogwarts girl. James stood there for a while longer, simply in awe of Lily. He was still watching her as the song ended, and she began to play a new one. This song was extremely different from the last. The last was full of hatred and anger, while the new took on a more somber tone. It started out slow and had a depressing tone to it.

_I am outside  
And I've been waiting for the sun  
With my wide eyes  
I've seen worlds that don't belong  
My mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalize  
Tell me why we live like this_

Keep me safe inside  
Your arms like towers  
Tower over me

Yeah  
Cause we are broken  
What must we do to restore  
Our innocence  
And all the promise we adored  
Give us life again cause we just wanna be whole

James desperately wanted to keep listening to her, but he knew that was not in the best interest for either of them. He quietly backed out of the Heads' common room and raced towards the Gryffindor Common Room. He had to find Adalyn because he had a feeling she would be the only one who could help her.

"Cigam," he told the Fat Lady, slightly out of breath, but not by much due to his Quidditch Training.

The portrait door swung open, and James ran into the common room. After a quick glance around the familiar red and gold room, he spotted the Marauders and Adalyn sitting by the fire, in their usual spots. He ran over to them.

He opened his mouth to ask his original question but was distracted when he noticed something rather peculiar. "Where are Callie and Alice?" James asked.

Adalyn bit her lip before replying slowly, "Well, Callie came into the room in near tears and begged for only Alice to go upstairs to the dorm. I'm forbidden from going up there right now." Adalyn looked upset, torn, slightly angered, hurt, and curious all at the same time.

"How do you do that?" Sirius asked in wonder.

"Do what exactly? Speak intelligently? 'Cause that's never going to work for you, Blackie. You've got to have a brain to do that," Adalyn smirked.

Completely oblivious to the fact that he had just been insulted, he replied, "The emotion thing. There were like… 7 different emotions on your face at the same time."

Remus and James exchanged humored looks over Sirius' head, while Adalyn slightly blushed.

"I dunno," she replied unsteadily. "James… you came in here in an awful big hurry… What's up?

"OH! Right! Lily needs you and she needs you NOW. Well, she really needed you like 15 minutes ago, but I got distracted," James said, giving Adalyn a sheepish look.

"What's wrong? Where is she?" Adalyn asked frantically.

"I dunno. She's in the Heads' common room. She was playing guitar---I didn't know she could do that---and singing angry and depressing music. I figured you'd be the only one who could even possibly get through to her," James replied with large fearful hazel eyes looking at Adalyn.

Adalyn's face had lost some of its color. "Shit…" she muttered. "Well, this sucks."

"What?" Remus asked, confused.

"Well, think about it. Callie came in here and dragged Alice off upstairs, but she refused to let me in the dorm. Meanwhile, Lily's in the Heads' Common Room, playing emo songs, and being down right depressing. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."

Remus smirked. He liked the muggle saying. Sirius and James, however, were still confused.

Seeing the blank looks on two of the Marauders' faces, Adalyn sighed. "Apparently, it DOES take a genius to figure this out. What it means is that Lily and Callie had a fight, a massive one by the looks of it."

"And just when I was getting used to hyper Lily," Sirius sighed.

"I hate drama," Remus announced.

"Who doesn't?" James asked. He was completely baffled that so much drama followed Lily everywhere; the past two weeks had been eventful, let alone the past two years. He was surprised when Adalyn didn't leave the common room.

"Why aren't you going to find Lily?" he asked, shocked.

Adalyn merely shrugged. "If I know Lily, she'll only want to be alone, and she won't want to talk about it. You see, the way Lily works is she relies on her music to take her through something, both the good and the bad. She used it to get through two summers ago and when she got wind of the family fo—"Adalyn covered her mouth in horror. She should not have said that. Lily was going to KILL her for letting that little bit slip.

"What?!?" Sirius asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I can't…I can't tell you. Lily's going to murder me if she finds out that I let that slip. She tries desperately to keep that low key, which is why none of you know about it. I don't think even Alice knows about it," Adalyn mused.

"What about Callie?" James asked.

"Have you not heard that story? Lily doesn't trust Callie with her class notes, forget about something like this," Adalyn rolled her eyes.

"Really?" Remus asked, amazed.

"Yup, which is part of the reason the two of them fight so much. Frankly, I'm glad Lily's not sleeping in the dorm right now. It's murder watching the two of them share a dorm when they're mad at each other. The tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife," Adalyn said. She sent a faint smile towards Remus, showing him that her last sentence was for him.

"So what do we do?" James asked helplessly. He felt like he _needed_ to do something, anything!

"There's not much we can do, I'm afraid. I'll talk to Lily tomorrow. I need to talk to her about something else, too. Hopefully, she'll agree with me on both fronts," Adalyn said mysteriously.

"What are you going to ask her?" Sirius asked. His curiosity always got the better of him.

Adalyn put on a look of fake shock and outrage. "How dare you! That is my and Lily's business only!"

"I was only curious…GOD. Someone's PMSing," Sirius muttered with a smirk. Unfortunately for him, Adalyn heard him.

"Not a smart move, mate," Remus told him, seeing the look of actual outrage on Adalyn's face.

"OI! You dense prat! I was only messing with you! Even James could tell that! Every time a girl even _pretends_ to be angry, you and your stupid gender blame it on PMS. Newsflash! NOT TRUE, you idiotic dolt!" Adalyn yelled. And with that, she left the common room.

"Shit… I'm completely screwed aren't I?" Sirius asked. He was completely stunned.

"Yup," James replied helpfully.

"This week is going to be hell," Remus groaned.

"How?" Sirius asked.

Remus gave him an incredulous look. "Seriously, Padfoot?"

"Yeah, of course. I'm Sirius!" Sirius replied excitedly.

Remus opened his mouth, but James cut in. "The emotion, mate."

Sirius mouth formed a perfect O. Once he got over his shock, he asked, "Really, though. Why is this week going to be hell?"

Remus shook his head. "You're incredibly dense, Padfoot. Think about it for a minute. Adalyn's mad at you because you had to make a dumb PMS comment, Lily's going to be depressed or angry because of the fight she and Callie are in the middle of, Callie's probably going to be angry because of said fight, and Alice is going to be completely stressed and saddened because her friends aren't happy and two of them are fighting. Get it now?"

"Damn… you're right. This week IS going to be hell," Sirius gasped.

"Padfoot, as a general piece of advice, Moony's always right," James said, sending a smirk towards Sirius.

Remus smiled, and Sirius nodded, knowing better than to start and argument over that because he knew he was going to lose the argument.

*_*_*_*

Sitting alone in the Heads' Common Room, playing Emo music was NOT helping Lily. In fact, it was making it worse. _I shouldn't even be that mad_, she thought to herself. She put her guitar down and went over to the red ruby couches in front of the fireplace. Staring into the flickering flames, she remembered the fight. _Why had Callie done this? If Callie knew me at all, she would know that pressure clams me up like an oyster. How could she claim to be one of my closest friends if she didn't know that? Then, there comes the fact that I _don't_ trust Callie. She's too damn manipulative and mean_, Lily recalled.

**Flashback**

_The four girls were sitting in the Great Hall, somewhat alone. There weren't many people anywhere near them. They were chatting away, having no clue about their surroundings. Then all of the sudden, a boy named Gabe Introna, a sixth year like them, sat down next to them. Lily, being the state that she was in that year, didn't really care too much. There really wasn't anywhere else to sit. Alice and Adalyn exchanged surprised looks, but didn't really care either way. They just went back to talking. Callie, however, apparently had a massive issue with him sitting there._

_"You can't sit there," Callie told him, in a voice that made her sound like a bitchy five year old._

_ "There's nowhere else to sit!" Gabe exclaimed. "Believe me, if there was, I wouldn't be sitting here!" He was hurt and getting defensive, Lily observed._

_ "Well, then go to the kitchens or something! YOU CAN'T SIT HERE!" Callie told him._

_ Lily, coming alive for the first time in months, finally jumped in. "No, Callie. Gabe, you're more than welcome to sit here, but now, I'm not sure you want to," she told him, sending a glare towards Callie._

_ Gabe just shook his head and left the Great Hall._

_ "CALLIE!" Lily yelled. She hadn't lifted her voice above whisper in months, but she HAD to do this. It just wasn't fair to him. "THAT WAS MEAN! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!"_

_ "Yes, I did. I hate him," Callie said in that five year old voice again._

_ "Someone's bitchy today," Lily muttered. Quite honestly, it scared the shit out of her that one of her closest friends could be so mean. Lily had always taken pride in the fact that she had good friends. Now…she wasn't so sure about that._

_ "Oh, look who's talking!" Callie yelled. "You haven't spoken at a normal level of sound in months! And then, magically, now, you decide that I did something wrong and yell at me!"_

_ "Oh, go fuck yourself," Lily growled. She got up from her seat and left the Great Hall._

**End of Flashback**

The memory of that day still angered Lily. The shock that one of her closest friends could be so mean still shook her very core. It was that day that Lily' trust of Callie began to dwindle. All of the fights they had and then this most recent one… Lily wasn't sure if they would ever be friends again. There was SO much drama, so much pain, that Lily felt like she couldn't go back down that road again.

*_*_*_*

James entered the Heads' Common Room around midnight. He had been hanging out in the Gryffindor Common Room to give Lily some space. But the Marauders had gone to bed now, so he had headed back. The fire was still going strong, and Lily's petite frame was wrapped into a small ball on the couch. She was sitting there, staring into the flames, not moving. James sat down on one of the arm chairs.

"Lil?" James asked.

A look of terror and sadness flashed across Lily's face as she looked over to where to voice came from. She let out a sigh of relief, seeing that it was only James. "Don't do that," she whispered. "My name's Lily, not Lil or Lils."

James hesitantly said, "But Adalyn calls you that."

"That's because Addy's set in her ways. She's extremely stubborn, you know," she said with a slight smile on her face, but the terror and shock was still present on her face.

"I shall do as you ask, my dear Lady," James said in a fake posh voice, with his ever charming crooked grin on his face.

Lily laughed. _Merlin, it feels so good to laugh_, Lily thought to herself. It felt like it had been ages since she'd laughed. Sure, there was that week of hyperness where she probably laughed a lot, but all of that passed in such a blur that she couldn't really remember what happened.

James smiled, seeing Lily laugh. She didn't laugh enough, he decided. It would be his job to make her laugh more. But at the same time, he wanted to know more about her—badly. The two halves of his mind battled back and forth for a while, but in the end, his curiosity won.

"Hey, Lily, can I ask you a question?" James asked hesitantly.

Lily glanced at him. "You can ask, but I can't guarantee that I'll answer."

James expected that answer, but he continued on with his question. "What's wrong? I came in here earlier, and, well, I could kind of tell that you were upset."

Lily momentarily looked horrified. "You saw the guitar playing, didn't you?" she asked.

James mutely nodded.

She looked into the fire. The flames flickered and danced. They danced the way she and Callie used to, way back when they were actually friends with no drama at all. _Should I tell James?_ She thought. Her immediate reaction was to say no, as it always was. But there was a part of her that thought about their pact a couple of weeks ago, a pact that made them friends. It all seemed to go in a blur. How had she and James effing Potter become friends? It was mind blowing. Lily took a deep breath. "I'm not sure where to start. How much do you know?" she asked. She knew that he probably talked to Adalyn after he saw her playing guitar.

James looked sheepish. "Well, I know it's about Callie," he said hesitantly.

Lily nodded. "I figured as much. What else do you know?" she asked him. Seeing the guilty look on his face, she added, "Come on. I won't get mad, I swear. I have a feeling you know more than you're letting on."

"Well," James breathed in. "I talked to Alice the other day and she told me an overview of the back story between you two."

"Figured," was all Lily said.

James raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. There was a moment's pause.

"Callie…"Lily sighed. "She's a force to be reckoned with, you know. When I first met her in first year, we were the best of friends. I met her after I met Adalyn and before Alice. She was fine then. No drama, at all. But then she grew up, and honestly? She turned into a bitch." Lily's face contorted into anger.

James watched her during her short monologue. She emerald green eyes darkened with hatred as she watched the flames of the fire. She always was more beautiful when she was angry. "What are you going to do?" James asked.

Lily chanced a look at him over her curled up knees before looking back at the fire. "I am not going to do anything. I'm done with all of the annoying and excessive drama. Merlin knows I have too much drama in my life as it is. I don't need anymore," she said hollowly.

He was shocked. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have to decide to lose one of your best friends. He had been friends with the Marauders forever; he had never lost a friend. Whereas Lily had now lost two: Snape and now Callie. He wanted more than anything to take some of her burden to make her feel better. Little did he know that he knew nothing of Lily's burdens. He had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

The two of them just sat there, staring into the fire, wrapped up in their own thoughts.

*_*_*_*

Lily walked down the empty hallways the next day. Everyone else was in the Great Hall, eating dinner. Lily just wanted to think, so she did what she always did when she wanted to think: she pulled out her charmed MP3 player and danced down the empty hallways. Dancing always cleared her mind.

"Lily?" Adalyn called out. Seeing that Lily had her MP3 headphones in, she chased after the dancing Lily and grabbed her wrist.

Lily let out a terrified scream and spun around, with her wand pointing at her attacker.

"Lils, shush… It's just me, Addy," Adalyn hugged her friend. Thinking back on it, that was definitely not the best way to approach her best friend.

Lily relaxed as soon as she saw it was Adalyn. "Sorry, Addy. You know how skittish I am about that stuff. What's up?"

Adalyn simply gave Lily a look, showing Lily that her attempt at changing the conversation was pathetic, but Adalyn let it slide. "I have two questions for you. I don't think you'll like either, but I, as your bestest friend in the whole wide world, would like to know the honest answer to both questions. Please?" Adalyn asked, giving Lily her best puppy eyes.

"Okay, fine," Lily sighed. "I have a feeling I'm going to regret it, though."

"Yay!" Adalyn exclaimed. "Right, Question number 1: a little birdie told me you and Callie had a fight. Care to share?"

Lily sighed and launched into an explanation of the fight. Normally, Lily wasn't the most open of people, but Adalyn was Adalyn, and Lily told her everything. Well, most everything, anyway.

"Oh, Lils," Adalyn sighed. "I don't know what to say. There's not much I _can_ say. You know that."

Lily nodded mutely. "I'm done, though. I mean it. I don't want to go back down that dark and twisty path, I refuse to. I just got my life back from him, and I sure as hell am not letting Callie take the control," she said stubbornly.

"Dark and twisty?" Adalyn smirked.

"Oh, shut it! You know how I am with my expressions!" Lily laughed. It was true, Lily had a knack for making up her own expressions such as _dark and twisty_ and _bloody buggering hell_, her favorite exclamation.

"Lils, I'm sort of scared to ask you this question, but think of it as a favor to me, okay?" Adalyn said hesitantly.

"Addy, just ask it," Lily sighed.

"Will you go to Hogsmede this weekend?" Adalyn asked hesitantly.

Lily froze. Whatever she had been expecting, this was not it.

Seeing her reaction, Adalyn rushed on, "Come on, Lils! Please? You haven't been to Hogsmede since 5th year! Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

That did it, Lily cracked a smile. Adalyn and her muggle expressions; as a pureblood, she was obsessed with muggles, especially their expressions.

"Addy, you KNOW there's a reason why I don't go to Hogsmede," Lily said seriously.

"I know!" Adalyn said, rolling her eyes. "I know it's painful and all that, but come on! It wasn't your fault! There was nothing you could have or would have done differently! But just come with me, we can make it a Lily and Addy day, just like it used to be—us against the world."

"You are too damn persuasive for your own good, you know that?" Lily said, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same.

"Does this mean you're coming?" Adalyn asked.

"Yeah, you're good. You pull at all the right heartstrings."

"YAY!" Adalyn shrieked and pulled Lily into a big hug.

Lily smiled. She didn't tell anyone, but she hadn't been hugged like that since that summer, two damn years ago. She shook her head; she wasn't going to think about it. It was time to be happy. She and Adalyn were going Hogsmede, and dammit, they were going to have fun.

**A/N: Second chapter is up! What do you think? Please Read and Review! Thanks!**


	3. 3: Of shoes and muggle games

Chapter 3—of shoes and muggle games

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine, unfortunately. :\**

The rays of the sun crept across Lily Evans' dormitory and eventually fell across her troubled sleeping form. She was dreaming, once again. This dream, however, would be more appropriately called a nightmare. She was dreaming of the fight that caused her downfall. Eventually, she cracked an eye open. Seeing it was nearing half past nine, she sighed and sat up in her bed. Her dreams were brutal. They were enough to make her not sleep for weeks after that summer. She eventually learned to block them out, only from learning a bit of occulmency, as per Dumbledore's request. However, each time something major happened, like the fight with Callie, they all came cascading back. Rubbing her face, she pulled herself out of bed. Adalyn was going to kill her; they agreed to meet at half past ten. She had an hour to get ready. Realizing this, she grabbed her towel and headed to the bathroom. One of the very few downsides to having a Heads' dormitory was the fact that she had to share the bathroom with James. It wasn't _that_ bad in reality, but Lily wasn't a fan of sharing a bathroom with him. It made her entirely too uncomfortable for her liking. The bathroom itself was mind bogglingly nice; it reminded Lily of the Prefect's bathroom, down on the 5th floor. There was an enormous bathtub that had about twelve faucets over it, each allowing her to add different bubbles to the bath. There was a stained glass portrait over the bathtub of a mermish person under water. Across from the bath was a glass shower, with a sink on either side of it: one for her and one for James. She reached into the glass shower; turning the water all the way to the hottest temperature it would allow her to turn it to. Lily loved hot water, and because of that, the hottest temperature never burned her skin, as it would for most people. She let the scalding hot water wash down her body, as she washed her hair with her favourite shampoos and conditioners. Once she was finally clean, she stepped out the shower, dried off, and wrapped her towel around her as she wandered to her closet.

She flicked through the racks of clothes in her closet, trying to find something suitable to wear today. She wanted to make an effort today, usually on the weekends and after classes, she just wore some jeans and a hoodie. She probably had the biggest collection of hoodie in the entire school—both magical ones and muggle ones. She even had ones from America, such as one from Disney World, a muggle amusement park there.

Lily let out an audible sigh. There was nothing in her closest that she _really_ wanted to wear. After about 10 more minutes of deliberation, Lily decided to go for black jeans matched with a white top, with a plain fitted emerald green zip up hoodie over it. For shoes, she opted to go with her grey suede boots, her favourite shoes. Lily's favourite part of fashion was shoes. To her, they were the most important part in a look because they pulled the whole look together. For her hair, she pulled her long red locks into a loose ballerina bun. She was far too lazy to deal with her hair down today.

As for make-up, Lily did her standard look that she did when she wanted to look nice. Normally, she didn't wear any, just the occasional lip balm. Today, though, was different. She applied some black eyeliner and black mascara, making her emerald green orbs pop. Adding a slightly pink lip gloss, she looked at herself in her floor length mirror. She let out a small smile. For once, she thought she looked good today. She grabbed her infamous purple purse, threw some Wizarding money in it, and left her dormitory. Lily looked at her watch; she had a little less than five minutes to reach the entrance hall and meet Adalyn. "Shit!" Lily yelled in the middle of the Heads' common room and took off running towards the Entrance Hall.

*_*_*_*

Adalyn leaned against the far wall in the entrance hall. She was wearing a royal blue skirt that flowed out to a couple of inches above her knee, paired with a baby blue v-neck fitted t-shirt and black flats. Lily was pushing the time, as was per usual for her when it involved her getting up before noon on the weekends. She occupied herself by watching everyone go by. She was left alone in peace for all of five minutes before someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hiya, Addy!" Sirius greeted.

Adalyn merely rolled her eyes. "'Lo, Blackie."

There was an awkward pause for a moment. Adalyn was still slightly miffed about the other night with the PMS joke, and Sirius had no idea what to say.

"Addy, listen, I—"

"Nah, Blackie, it's my fault. It just hit a little too close to home, that's all. I'm sorry about flying off the handle at that," she said.

Lily was about 20 yards away when she heard Adalyn's last sentence—Adalyn and her muggle sayings. Lily smiled and shook her head, as she approached the pair. Sirius was standing in his standard pose: completely relaxed and totally, well, cool. He was wearing some black jeans and a white t-shirt that was from "The Hippogriffs," a new wizard band. Sirius had his back to her, so she motioned for Adalyn to stay quiet and not mention Lily. Adalyn simply smirked. Her friend certainly had a mischievous streak in her.

In a quick motion, Lily ran up behind Sirius and squeezed his sides. He let out a girly shriek and jumped three feet in the air. Adalyn and Lily took one look at each other and started laughing. The two girls were laughing so hard their eyes were watering and their sides hurt. They laughed for a good ten minutes before the other Marauders joined Sirius.

Remus cast Sirius an odd look. "Padfoot, what'd you do to them?"

"Me? Who said _I_ did anything!" Sirius yelped.

"Um... 'cause you're Sirius Black, the infamous prankster and part of the Marauders?" James guessed.

"Oh," Sirius said. He looked shocked to discover this. "Anyway, _I_ didn't do anything. It's Red who's the blasted prankster!"

"Lily, you mean?" Peter asked, clarifying.

"No, I mean the red spaceship that is soon going to attack Hogwarts!" Sirius replied sarcastically. "Yes, you dolt! I mean Lily!"

"You know about spaceships?" she asked curiously. "I'm impressed. And what about me?"

"I was just telling them," Sirius motioned to the other Marauders, "of your little stunt," he scowled.

The two girls lapsed back into giggles.

"Sweet mother of Merlin! It wasn't _that_ funny," Sirius said crossly.

"It was though!" Adalyn laughed.

"What happened?" Peter asked.

Lily took a quick succession of short shallow breaths, while waving her hands near her face. The four boys looked at her like she was crazy for a moment (Adalyn was used to this—she had seen Lily do it many times), but then they realized what she was doing: she made herself stop laughing.

"How the hell did you do that?" James asked in wonder.

Lily shrugged. "Loads of practice and trial and error, I suppose."

The four Marauders looked at her in awe. Lily shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable with all of the attention.

"Anyway," Adalyn jumped in, saving her best friend. "Blackie, here, and I were talking when Lils snuck up on him and squeezed his sides. He jumped like 3 feet in the air and shrieked like a little girl. It's a muggle game, you see, Blackie," Adalyn said, smirking. "Muggle teenagers do it to each other, and it's said that the sound you make is your sex sound."

The Marauders roared with laughter, save for Sirius, who glared at the rest of them. The two girls succumbed to their giggles again.

"OI! That's enough, you hear?" Sirius pouted. Sirius Black did NOT like being laughed at.

"Oh, come on, Padfoot. You know that if that happened to any of the rest of us, you would be rolling on the floor laughing so hard you were crying," Remus reasoned.

Sirius smirked. He knew Remus was right, as he always was. "Right, then. What are we waiting for?" Sirius laughed. He turned to Lily and gave her a bow as he said in a fake posh voice, "My dear lady, would you mind terribly accompanying me to the beautiful little village down there?"

"Oh, but of course!" Lily fake swooned. She grabbed Sirius' hand, and the two of them skipped off into the village, leaving a laughing Remus, a lost Peter, a very befuddled Adalyn, and a jealous James.

"What in the name of Merlin's saggy left---?" Adalyn began to swear.

"Sweet Merlin!" Remus exclaimed. "Do you kiss your mother with the mouth, Addy?!?"

"Perhaps," she shrugged. "Now, come on! We already got left by two people who were the least likely to come today!"

"Why is Lily the least likely to come today?" Peter asked curiously. They all knew why Sirius didn't really want to go today: he didn't have a date for the first time ever.

Adalyn shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. She sighed. It was about time to give the Marauders a hint into Lily's story. Taking a deep breath, she began to speak, "I'm not really sure. She's only ever told me bits and pieces that have slipped out. You see, there's a village that looks a lot like Hogsmede that's muggle nearby where she lives. The most I know is that she asked someone to go with her there, and something bad happed to that person. That's all I know…"

The green eyed monster hopped onto James' back. He immediately assumed that she was on some date with some other guy. What he didn't know, is that that person was her brother.

*_*_*_*

As she and Sirius skipped down the lane towards Hogsmede, Lily became more and more hesitant. Her skipping slowed, and Sirius could see her start to visibly tremble.

Before he knew it, Sirius Black's caring side was coming out for Lily, a side of him that only showed for his fellow Marauders. "Lilybean, what's wrong?" he asked, pausing in the middle of the lane.

She started shaking even more as the small village came into sight. Sirius reached over to her

and brought her into a big bear hug.

"What's wrong, Lils?" he asked again.

She just shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder. She _needed_ to be able to do this. It happened two years ago, for Merlin's sake! She was tired of hiding underneath the ghost of him.

The other four approached the sight of Lily buried in Sirius' arms. James was jealous. _How could his BEST FRIEND do that to him? Sirius knew exactly how he felt!_

Adalyn saw Sirius' expression, and even though she couldn't see Lily's face, she knew exactly what was wrong and jumped into action, heading over to the pair

"Sirius," she whispered. "Go talk to James. He's seething in jealousy right now. Let me take care of Lils."

Sirius looked reluctant. He didn't want to let Lily down in any way or to show her that didn't care. James would have his head if he offended Lily in any way, shape, or form.

"Sirius, it's okay," Adalyn soothed. "I can take care of Lily. She isn't my best friend for nothing. And your best friend needs you. Meet you guys in the Three Broomsticks in half an hour?"

Sirius smiled. "You're an angle, Addy," he breathed as he turned around to go find his best friend.

No one noticed the faint pink on Adalyn's cheeks after Sirius' comment.

"Lily, honey, what's the matter?" Adalyn asked her broken friend.

"Hogsmede—village—him—WHY—Callie!" was all Lily could manage to choke out before she buried her face in Adalyn's shoulder, tears streaming down her face.

"Lily, focus," Adalyn said. She made the mistake several times before of saying _Look at me_, but this time she knew better. "You swore to me that you wouldn't let him control your life! You told me that this is your life and no one could tell you how to run it! Look at what you're doing right now! Crying over going to Hogsmede because it reminds you of that village! Come on, Lily! You can do this! You should be able to go to the only all Wizarding village in Britain and enjoy it!"

Lily's normally sparkling emerald green eyes were murky green puddles now. "What about Callie?" she asked.

Adalyn's face hardened. "Anyone who yells at my best friend like that can go to hell. She doesn't deserve to be here," she said coldly.

Lily, however, wasn't so convinced. Truth be told, she still felt guilty about the whole thing. She, Adalyn, and Alice were her only friends. Then, she and Adalyn decided to not be friends with her anymore in their 7th year. And she knew she shouldn't have gotten so mad at Callie, but she expected to her to understand. Lily voiced her thoughts to Adalyn.

Adalyn sighed. One of Lily's biggest flaws was that she often cared too much. Adalyn wished Lily would learn to sometimes think of herself first. "Lily, Look at what she's done to you in the past. Why in the name of Merlin would you want her here? She's treated you like crap for the past 3 years. Come on, you can do this. Look, I'll walk with you, okay? And we'll make this trip like nothing you've ever imagined," Adalyn finished her little speech with a slight smile.

Lily grinned. Today would be another day to add to the long list of Lily and Adalyn's adventures. With a wave of a wand to fix her smeared mascara, Lily hooked arms with Adalyn, and the two of them headed off towards the small village.

*_*_*_*

Sirius sauntered over to James. He could just tell by the way James was standing that James was really pissed off. "What's up, Prongs?" he asked.

"Don't ask me what's up, you bloody traitor!" James spat.

"Whoa, Prongs. What did I do?!?"

"Don't act like you don't know what you did!" James scoffed.

The problem was, Sirius was really clueless. "I don't know!" he cried out.

"You know how I feel about her! What did you think—that now that Evans and I are friends you could just waltz over to her and win her heart?" James shouted.

Sirius' face was a perfect example of pure shock and was frozen still for a moment before he rushed to comfort his friend. "Chill, man. Lily and I are just friends, and that's all we'll ever be."

James wanted to bad to believe his friend, he really did, but what was he supposed to think when he saw the girl of his affection in the arms of his best mate? "Then what was she doing in your arms?" he whispered.

Sirius rolled his eyes at his friend's stupidity. "Prongs, you're pathetic. I was comforting her!" Seeing his friend's sceptical look, Sirius rushed to explain. "Look, we were skipping along, and then all of the sudden, she stopped skipping and started shaking, muttering to herself. I couldn't just let her be miserable!"

"You swear that's what happened?" James asked slowly.

"Yes, now come on. You're being a prat. Let's go visit Rosmerta!" Sirius laughed, as he and the other Marauders headed down the path towards Hogsmede.

*_*_*_*

Adalyn and Lily strolled into Hogsmede, Adalyn silently being Lily's rock for the time being. "Where do you want to go, Lils?" she asked.

"Why do I have to decide? I don't WANNA decide," Lily retorted, with a fake pout.

"Oh, shut it," Adalyn laughed, rolling her eyes. It was nice to see Lily act a little like the old Lily, the one that disappeared at the end of their 5th year. "Come on; let's go to the Three Broomsticks. Rosemerta will love to see you."

"She knows who I am?" Lily asked, baffled.

"Yeah, 'course she does. Who doesn't? You've got your infamous temper, and whether you like it or not, you're the girl James Potter has chased after all these years. Why wouldn't she know who you are?" Adalyn replied.

"Adalyn Reeves!" Lily protested. "I know EXACTLY where your mind is going, and I don't like it one bit!"

"Oh, chill, Lils. You know it's true," she laughed, throwing in a playful wink towards Lily.

"Prat," Lily muttered, as the two of them entered the Three Broomsticks.

Adalyn scanned the room, apparently looking for someone.

"Addy, who are you looking for?" Lily asked slowly.

"You'll see," she said simply, smirking. She grabbed Lily's hand and headed toward a booth in a far corner.

Lily's question was soon answered. As the two of them reached the booth, Lily saw who they were meeting: the Marauders. "Adalyn Reeves, you are a right git, you know that?" Lily shot at her friend, only pretending to look annoyed.

Adalyn saw what Lily was doing and played along. "But Lils! Come on! They're not THAT bad. Look, Remus is one of your best guy mates. You must like him enough. And there's Peter! He's harmless—sorry Pete, but you know it's true! Then there's Blackie! He's nice…ish. Scratch that. He's only nice to you. Like this morning! He was sweet and was your knight in shining armour! And then there's James. Well, enough said about him," Adalyn finished, smirking.

"ADALYN ELIZABETH REEVES!" Lily roared. "That was so not part of it!" she fake pouted.

"Oh, shush Lils. If you're allowed to improvise, then so am I!" she laughed.

Laughing, the two of them turned to the Marauders, who all had very amusing reactions to their little skit. Peter looked a little miffed; Lily supposed that was from the harmless comment. Remus was in hysterics, having understood what the girls were doing. Sirius and James looked completely and utterly confused. Sirius because he had no idea what a knight in shining armour was, and James because he thought Lily liked him, at least as a friend.

"What the bleeding hell is a knight in shining armour?" Sirius asked.

"It's a muggle saying, Blackie. It said that every princess or damsel in distress will be rescued by a knight in shining armour, which is a protective thingy that protects—Addy help!" Lily cried out, seeing as she was failing at trying to describe what armour was.

"Armour's pieces of metal that you wear that protect you against bullets and other things that are the muggle equivalent of curses," Adalyn said, simply.

"Yeah, what she said," Lily added helpfully.

Adalyn rolled her eyes. Lily was certainly in a playful, clueless mood.

"You and your stupid muggle sayings," Sirius muttered.

"Oh, shush. You know you love them," Adalyn retorted.

"James, what's wrong?" Lily asked, noticing his brooding manor.

_There she goes again!_ James thought. _A first she acts like my friend, then she makes it seem like she doesn't like me at all, and now she's back to acting like my friend! What the hell?!?_

"Oi! James!" Adalyn called out. "Please return from La La Land and answer dear sweet Lillian's question."

"MY NAME IS NOT LILLIAN, YOU PRAT!" Lily called out. "You suck at being my best mate," she pouted.

"I'm only joking, Lils," Adalyn said, rolling her eyes.

"Nope, I'm not talking to you!" Lily scoffed and turned around to survey the Marauders. After a moment's deliberation, Lily told Adalyn, "James is replacing you!"

"I am?" James asked.

"No, Remus is," Lily said sarcastically.

"I am?" Remus asked.

Lily just shook her head, and turned to Adalyn. "I take it back, I don't want any of these," she paused, trying to find the right word, "boys," she spat, "to be my best mate. They're all a bunch of idiots."

Adalyn just laughed. She missed having this Lily around. This was the Lily that she hadn't seen in forever. "Lily and Adalyn, on another whirl wind of adventures!" Adalyn laughed.

Sirius leaned over to James and said, "What the hell is your girl on??"

Unfortunately for him, Lily heard him. She gave him her full force glare, but little did he know, she was only messing with him. "Sirius Orion Black, did you just say what I think you just said?"

He audibly gulped. "Um...no?"

"Good, that's what I thought," she laughed.

Sirius' eyes widened. "You're too good of an actress, did you know that?"

"Thanks, Blackie!" Lily squealed, as she ran over to give him a hug.

Sensing that the Marauders had some questions for her, Adalyn jumped in. "Hey, Lils, how about you go get us some drinks?"

"Ohh!! Yeah!! I wanna meet Rosemerta!" Lily squealed. "I'm not getting you lot any firewisky. That's a BAD idea," she said, shaking her head fervently. "Anybody want anything other than regular old butterbeer?" When nobody said anything, she said, "Okey doke. I'll be back in a jiffy," she laughed, as she skipped away towards Rosemerta.

"Adalyn, seriously—The emotion, Padfoot—what the hell is up with Lily?" James asked. "Last I saw her she was all but crying and now—she's ridiculously hyper!"

"Welcome to the fairly random world of Lily Evans," Adalyn smiled. "This is what she used to be like around her friends. It comes out every now and then, like today for example, when she's either really happy or trying to block some emotion out. Today, it just happens to be a mixture of both."

"But I don't get it," Sirius cried out. "One minute I had a 'damsel in distress' in my arms, and then the next, she's playing pranks on all of us!"

"Sirius," she sighed, "that's just the way Lily is. She has several different personalities, when you think about it. There's the Head Girl Lily, there's the bookworm Lily, there's the muggle Lily, there's the summer Lily, and then there's the Lily when she's around her friends, which is what you just saw. That's when she's truly herself, when she feels the most comfortable. You see, it's a defence mechanism. By having several different personalities, she only lets people know a little part of her. She only truly trusts her friends, the only people who really see what she's like. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it does," Remus said slowly.

"I have a question," Sirius said, waving his hand in the air, as if they were in class.

"Yes, Mr. Black," Adalyn laughed, pretending to call on him.

"Why does she trust us? I mean, we're Hogwarts' biggest pranksters. And sorry, mate, but with all of the shit Prongs has done to Lils, I really don't get it," Sirius said.

The other four all had mirroring expressions of shock on their faces.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Padfoot, I think you just said something mildly profound," Remus said slowly, still shocked.

"Well, I do have my moments. But, Addy, I meant what I said. Why does she trust us?"

"Blackie, think about it. Yes, you lot are pranksters, but haven't you seen enough of Lily this past month and a half to know that she's pretty mischievous herself. Besides, the four of you are probably some of the most respectable guys in this school. Remus has his shyness and chivalry going for him; Peter's got his fierce loyalty going for him; James has got his ability to be a leader as well as his never ending courage going for him; and, you, well, you're one of the most genuine people I've ever met, not to mention your loyalty to those who deserve it…" Adalyn trailed off, locking gazes with Sirius for a moment.

Sirius' normally cold steel grey eyes seemed to melt into silver when they stared into Adalyn's own blue grey ones.

The moment however, was abruptly ended when Lily came back, with the drinks in her hands. "Are you lot done psychoanalyzing me yet?" she asked shrewdly.

Sirius and Adalyn both jumped simultaneously, while James tried to cause a diversion. "Psycho—what?" he asked.

Lily simply rolled her eyes. "Trying to figure out my inner workings, the reasons why I do certain things, etc. Now, Remus, answer my question."

"Erm--," Remus cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"You guys," Lily rolled her eyes. "Just because I change moods randomly, doesn't mean I'm stupid." When the others tried to protest, Lily simply raised her hand. "No, no. Let me get this out. I'm Head Girl for a reason, guys. I know all about the chats that my lovely friends have had with the four of you concerning me. I'm well aware of the chat Alice had with you about Callie, when Addy talked to you guys about why it was a bad idea to find me when I was upset about Callie, the chat that Addy had way back at the beginning of the year on the train with you lot about why the words 'Look at me!' affect me so much, and I'm plenty well aware of why Addy sent me to get drinks. I know you lot had questions, but how about you start asking me? I'm pretty sure I can answer them better than she can, no offense, Addy."

"None taken," she replied simply, with a smile on her face. She had no idea how Lily knew about all of those chats, but however she did, she was glad. It was about time Lily started warming up to people besides her.

"Can I ask a question now?" Sirius asked.

"No, you can't, Blackie," Lily said sarcastically.

"Then why did you say we could ask you questions??" Sirius yelped indignantly.

"Marvellous Merlin!" Lily laughed. "Sirius, I was being SARCASTIC. Get used to it, I use it a lot."

"Marvellous Merlin, Lils? That's a new one," Adalyn mused.

"Yeah, well, I was getting tired of 'Sweet Merlin'. It gets a bit old after a while, doesn't it? Anyway, I went for the alliteration, like muggles say 'good god!' you know? And marvellous was the first m-adjective that popped into my head," Lily laughed.

"Can someone please explain what's going on here?" James asked. He was dying to know more about Lily.

Lily glanced at Adalyn, who simply gave her and encouraging nod. "Well, I suppose it started sixth year. Is that right, Addy?"

"Yeah, somewhere around there."

"Right, so somewhere around sixth year, I was all dark and twisty, and I got fed up with the extreme lack of good swear words in the Wizarding world. So, I took to inventing my own. They sort of just pop into my head when I'm grasping for decent swear words. Out of the ones that I've made up, I think my favourite are 'Bloody buggering hell!' and 'Merlin's saggy y-fronts!' Is that about right, Addy?"

"Yeah, I think so. Marvellous Merlin's a good one," she smirked.

The three of the boys sat there with their mouths agape.

"Now, now, boys. It isn't polite to leave your mouths hanging open so wide that you could catch flies," Lily said in the most posh voice she could muster while trying to conceal her laughter.

"That isn't polite? What about creating swear words?" James spluttered.

"Eh... it's not _that_ bad, is it, Addy?" Lily responded.

"No. Well, I don't think so anyway. What about you, Rem? Do you think creating swear words is bad?" Adalyn challenged Remus.

"Oi! I didn't say bad!" James interjected. "In fact, I think—"

"—It's quite brilliant!" Sirius finished.

"And, who knew that the Head Girl—"

"—who we thought was a goody two shoes—"

"—isn't at all!" James finished with a grin on his face.

"Oi, Remmy and Pete. Do they do this all the time?" Lily whispered.

"Yeah, pretty much," Peter shrugged.

"I'm convinced they were twins separated at birth," Remus mused. "I swear they have the same mind."

"That would make for boring pranks, wouldn't it?" Lily asked, with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I don't like that look in her eye, Prongsy," Sirius muttered.

"Oh, shush. It's not like she's going to prank us or anything," James laughed.

"Oh really? You think so?" Lily challenged James.

"Yeah, of course. You love us to much," he said confidently, flashing her a charming smile.

Lily scoffed. "Okay, Potter. Just know that it'll happen when you least expect it."

"Lily…" Adalyn warned. She knew of her friend's mischievous streak and upon the level which the prank would be played.

"Addy! Come on! Please?" Lily begged. She desperately wanted to prank the four Marauders, Hogwarts' own pranksters.

"No, Lily," Adalyn said firmly. "Remember what happened the last time you did this! That poor muggle boy!"

Lily's expression darkened. "That git had it coming to him. Besides, it was a minor mishap. It was nothing major."

"Yeah," Adalyn scoffed, "because him having neon green hair for the rest of his life is nothing!"

"Oh…You're talking about Terry?" Lily asked, surprised. "I thought you were talking about Sam!"

"Oh, Merlin! Sam! That proves my point!" Adalyn argued back.

"But you forgot about him, though. See? It wasn't so bad! There wasn't any severe lasting damage," Lily said victoriously.

"Oi! You two! Shut it for a second!" Sirius yelped.

The two girls immediately shut up.

"Thank you," James sighed. "Now do you care to clue us in on what the bloody hell you two are talking about?"

Lily looked immensely guilty. "Your turn to tell this one, Addy!"

"Oh, now you want me to tell the stories? I don't think so! You get to tell this one!" Adalyn scoffed.

"Fine," Lily grumbled. She turned to the four marauders. "This was…Easter break of fourth year. There were these two boys, called Sam and Terry. I met Terry, first, and he wasn't too bad when I met him. Sure, he was a bit of a dirt ball, but nothing major. He kept coming to visit me at Shorty's, the place where I work. He got really annoying when he started calling me carrot top. I didn't like that very much, so I charmed his hair green and cast a permanent sticking charm on it, so now his hair is neon green for the rest of his life. There were no major injuries, so he's alright."

Adalyn rolled her eyes.

"Oh, shut it, Addy. You laughed for ages when you saw him!"

Adalyn looked sheepish for a moment. "I suppose that's true…"

Lily just smirked. "Then there was Sam, who I truly hated. He dated one of my muggle mates, back home, but then he tried to have sex with her when she was 13, so he got his ass dumped. The DAY AFTER she dumped him, he started hitting on me. Didn't like that very much, so I sent him a charming note when he was at his school that was really a portkey that vanished his clothes, and took him to the muggle equivalent of the Great Hall during lunch time. He ran out of there so fast that he tripped on his way out and broke an arm." To Lily's credit, she did look slightly guilty about that prank.

The marauders, however, burst out laughing.

"See? Major injury AND lasting emotional damage," Adalyn pointed out.

"OI! A broken arm is not a major injury! He's just being a wuss. I've broken loads of bones before, and I'm still fine!" Lily protested. "I'm still in one piece!! For the most part, anyway."

Coming over his laughter, James interrupted the girls' argument. "Wait, Lils…Exactly how many bones have you broken?"

Lily looked sheepish. "You've got to understand…I'm a huge klutz. I'm not, nor have I ever been, abused. But to answer your question, I've broken eleven bones, I think."

"ELEVEN?" Sirius yelped. "Bloody hell, that makes us look like amateurs!"

"Oh, it's nothing," Lily said rolling her eyes. "Broken bones aren't that painful. Sprains hurt a hell of a lot more."

"Do I wanna know how many sprains you've had?" James asked.

Lily shook her head. "I couldn't tell you if you asked. I've lost track."

Adalyn laughed, shaking her head. "Lils, you've got to tell them some of the stories! Those are the best part!"

"Addy, no!" Lily moaned. "They're bad enough as it is. No way am I telling the stories behind them!"

"Come on, Lils," James pleaded. "Just one?"

"Lils, just tell them the story behind your current injury. It isn't as bad as the rest," Adalyn said.

"Oh, fine," Lily grumbled, swearing under her breath.

"Wait…You're injured right now?" James asked. _How did I miss this??_ He thought to himself.

"Yeah," Lily sighed. She rolled up the sleeve of her green hoodie and waved her wand. A tan bandage wrapped around her wrist appeared.

"How'd you hide that?" Peter asked.

Lily looked uncomfortable, shifting her weight in her seat. She hadn't used any dark magic to hide it, but she did create a spell to hide this type of stuff, and she didn't want anyone knowing about it.

"What happened?" James asked, sensing Lily's discomfort.

"Well, you see, I was sitting in a recliner; you know those chairs that have the foot rests that pop up? So I was sitting there, and I had my books on the foot rest part with me sitting cross legged in the actual seat part. I needed to get up to go get a book, so I rolled over the arm of the couch, and well…I fell. I landed on my wrist, and now I have a sprained wrist."

The four Marauders roared with laughter.

"You see? This is why I didn't want to tell them!" Lily exclaimed.

Sobering up, Remus asked, "Lils, why don't you just go see Madam Pomfrey about your wrist? Instead of wearing the muggle bandage?"

Lily scowled. "I despise that woman. She's a right cow. I hate her damn lectures about being a klutz and how I have to not fall down as many flights of stairs as I have. It's the same rant over and over, which gets really old after about the 10th time you hear it. Besides, this muggle bandage isn't that bad. I will probably be able to get away with not wearing it after about a week. A simple charm and, besides you lot, no one ever has to know."

Adalyn laughed at her friend's antics. Lily tried so hard to have no one know anything about her, and yet, here she was, telling the Marauders stories about herself. It was, in a way, bizarre, but in another way, it seemed like the most right thing to do in the world.

"Addy, how do you put up with it?" James suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"How do you put up with all the secrets Lily has? How do you know if you ever truly know her?"

Adalyn sent a secret smile at Lily. She had been asked this question so many times. "It's not hard. When you're friends with people like Lily, you've just got to give them everything you have, and after a while, they start giving back. You can't expect to always receive things in return. You give in hopes they somehow benefit from it. You give because you truly care about that person. You give because you know you are the exact same way. We aren't friends for no reason at all." Adalyn chanced a glance at Lily. Sure, she had been asked that question many times before, but never in the presence of Lily. Lily was staring emptily at the edge of the table, not paying attention to anything anyone said.

While the Marauders were contemplating Adalyn's words, Lily stood up. "I think I'm going to head back," she said.

"You sure?" James asked, surprised.

"Yeah, yeah," Lily waved her hand distractedly.

"Do you want anyone to come with you?" Adalyn asked. She knew something was on Lily's mind.

"Nah, I'm good. I just need to clear my head and think for a while," she said.

Adalyn stood up and gave Lily a hug, something the girls always did when one of them seemed a little off. She whispered in Lily's ear, "Just because I'm not coming with you now, doesn't mean you're off the hook. I expect answers in your common room later, okay?"

Lily faintly smiled and nodded. She knew better than to think Adalyn would "let her off the hook" like that. Adalyn and her muggle sayings, Lily thought. Sighing, she pushed open the door to the Three Broomsticks and started to head back up to the castle. Adalyn was right, and Lily knew that, but it reminded her so much of how her friendship with Callie _wasn't_. Callie always demanded things in return, and most of the time, she wanted big secrets. She never let Lily choose what she wanted to tell Callie, it was always a matter of telling Callie what Callie wanted to hear or know. She sighed, running her hand through the pieces of her hair that had fallen down throughout the day. Even when she and Callie weren't friends anymore, Callie still plagued Lily with drama. _All this drama is getting really old really fast_, she thought to herself as she continued the trek back to Hogwarts.

*_*_*_*

The four Marauders all had questioning expressions as they turned to Adalyn with Lily left the pub.

Sighing, Adalyn said, "We seem to be making a pattern of this. But ask away."

Before anyone could say anything else, Sirius yelped, "I never got to ask my question!"

"Well, you can ask her when we get back up to the castle. We just have to let her cool off a little bit," Adalyn told him. She was really worried about Lily. These mood swings showed just how hard Lily was trying to block something out.

"Oh, fine," Sirius grumbled.

"Addy, why did she leave like that?" James asked, pained. He truly wanted to spend time with her, and then she left….

"Don't worry about it, James," Adalyn sighed. "She's just being Lily. Today's hard for her. It's the first time she's been to Hogsmede since 5th year, and she's doing it without Callie. Imagine doing something you haven't done for a while and that you're terrified to do that one thing, but when you're doing it, you can't have Remus or Peter there with you. It's hard, James. Don't take it personally," she said softly. Seeing James' saddened face, she added, "Let's wait a while, then we'll go see her. My guess is she's listening to her music, playing along, and thinking through everything."

*_*_*_*

Lily wanted more than anything to do her normal ritual: go find a quiet place and play music. But there were certain people blocking her way: a couple of Slytherins.

"Move, Mulciber," Lily said, keeping her head down. He was standing directly in front of her path.

"Aww is poor wittle mudblood Evans scared of the big bad Slytherins?" he taunted.

Lily clenched her fists and her jaw, but remained silent.

"Nah, I reckon she's more scared of Carter, don't you?" Avery joined in.

Lily whirled around to stare him down. "Who is this Carter you speak of?" she ground out.

"Why, Carter Jones, of course," he smirked.

Without giving it a moment's thought, Lily let go of her magic in a rage of fury, shooting off double stunners at both boys. The red spells came out so fast the boys didn't even have a chance to defend themselves. _SHIT!_, Lily thought to herself as her rage cleared and she saw what she had done to the boys. _Damn, I have to be more careful about this_, she scolded herself. With a wave of her wand, she cleared their memories so they wouldn't be able to remember any of what just happened.

Lily was quite honestly terrified. The soon to be Death Eater boys shouldn't know about Carter Jones, he was a muggle. At least she thought so…

Not knowing what else to do, she decided to pay Dumbledore a visit. Surely he would have some answers. Her feet took her along the empty hallways until she approached the stone gargoyle.

"Lemon Drops," she said as the stone gargoyle sprang to life and let her jump onto the moving staircase. She approached the door and knocked.

"Come in," was Dumbledore's response.

As Lily entered his office, he said, "Why, Miss Evans! I wasn't expecting you! What can I do for you?"

"I'm really sorry to barge in on you like this, sir, but I didn't know who else to talk to. You still remain the sole person in this school who really knows what happened," Lily told him sheepishly.

"I take it you have not spoken to Miss Reeves?" he asked.

"No," Lily replied, ashamed. "It's just so hard! How do I tell my best friend that I didn't tell her the worst part? And then all of her sympathy!" Lily shuddered.

"Perhaps it would do you some good to tell someone else?" Dumbledore suggested. "Someone, who, perhaps, knows nothing of the true story?"

"I'm not telling a bloody stranger if that's what you're saying!" Lily yelped.

"Language, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said gently. "But I was not referring to a stranger. I was simply referring to a different friend, perhaps Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black, or even Mr. Potter. I think it would do you all some good for you to tell them this tragic story."

"Maybe," Lily said hesitantly.

"Miss Evans, upon what was the matter that you entered so urgently?" Dumbledore asked.

"Right!" Lily said. "Um… So I ran into a couple of Slytherins, who—sorry Professor—are Death Eaters to be, I'm sure of it. Anyway, they mentioned Carter Jones. He wasn't possibly working for Voldemort, Professor, was he? What if because I trusted him, I gave Voldemort information about…everything?" Lily struggled to find the right words to express herself. The guilt was strangling her vocal cords—she had no idea how to explain it. "And I just got so scared, and I accidentally let my magic go…." She trailed off.

Dumbledore gazed upon his student with the utmost worry pouring from his crystal blue eyes. "Miss Evans, it will not help to worry. I highly doubt Carter Jones was working for Voldemort. It is probably just a coincidence," he assured her. "However, I still strongly recommend that you tell someone. It will truly help you."

"Yes, sir," Lily mumbled.

"Oh, and do try to keep a hold on your magic," Dumbledore smiled. "It would make an awkward situation if we had to explain events such as four stunners being sent from the same person at once."

"I'll do my best, sir," Lily replied.

"Alright, then. Off you go. I am sure Miss Reeves as well as Mr. Potter are frantically searching for you throughout this glorious castle," Dumbledore told her with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

Faintly blushing, Lily stood up, "Thank you, sir."

"Anytime, Miss Evans, Anytime."

"Goodbye, sir."

"Goodbye, Miss Evans," came Dumbledore's reply as his door swung shut behind Lily.

As she descended the stairs, once again, Dumbledore had given her something to think about. Lily knew she really should tell Adalyn everything. And while she hadn't told her _everything_, per say, but she had told her most of it. Adalyn just didn't know all of the fine details. Sighing, she headed off towards the Room of Requirement, knowing she needed to blow off some steam before she found Adalyn.

*_*_*_*

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" Adalyn exploded. "SHE SAID SHE WOULD BE HERE!!_"_

_ "_Maybe she's somewhere else?" Sirius suggested.

"Yeah, she's probably lying in a ditch somewhere---DEAD!" Adalyn shrieked. She was honestly worried about Lily. It wasn't like Lily to not be where she told Adalyn she would be.

"Addy, yelling at Sirius here isn't going to help anything—" Remus started.

"No, it won't!" Sirius agreed.

"Oi, mate. Shut up, let Moony finish," James said.

Sirius scowled in his friends' direction.

"Anyway, Addy. Where else does she go if she isn't here or in the Gryffindor Common Room?" Remus asked.

Adalyn thought for a moment. "How _could_ I be so stupid?" she exclaimed. "She's in the Room of Requirement!"

"The what?" the four Marauders asked.

"You're kidding me, right? The four Marauders—Hogwarts most infamous pranksters—don't know about the Room of Requirement?" Adalyn asked, bewildered.

"Nope," James said. "Care to share?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just follow me. It's easier to show you than it is to explain it," Adalyn said, as she headed towards the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy on the seventh floor.

The four boys hurried to catch up with her, only to find her walking back and forth across a blank wall.

"Addy, are you lost or something?" Sirius asked.

"No, now shut up. I'm trying to concentrate," she snapped.

As Sirius opened his mouth to say something else, a large mahogany door appeared in front of him.

"Now, you lot, wait here. I'm going to check and see what's up. I'll let you know when you can come in," Adalyn said, turning to the boys.

"Okay," Remus replied hurriedly, before any other Marauders could reply.

Adalyn creaked open the enormous door and slipped inside. She stopped for a moment. The room had become a muggle football field, complete with nearly neon green grass and pristine white goals and lines. On the other side of the "field," Lily was repeatedly shooting a ball at a mechanical goalie. Casually, Adalyn jogged across the field, and as Lily was about to shoot the ball, she sprinted in front of Lily, effectively stealing the ball out from underneath Lily.

"OI! That's my ball!" Lily complained. "Just ask the Room for your own ball!"

"Nope," Adalyn replied, smirking. "This one's mine now."

"Bitch," Lily scowled.

"Oh, come now. That's not very nice!" Adalyn complained. "Especially when I saved you from four very handsome blokes!" Adalyn threw in a smirk.

"Why do I feel like this isn't leading anywhere good?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"The Marauders are outside, waiting for me to let them come in."

"WHAT! WHY?" Lily shrieked.

"Take a chill pill, Lils. They followed me because YOU weren't in the Heads Common Room like you said you'd be, and I got all freaked out, so they helped me find you," Adalyn replied, sending her friend a dark look.

Lily's manner suddenly changed. When Adalyn came in, she was fine; she was bubbly and forgot about the day's pervious events. But now, Lily became much more hesitant; her shoulders drooped, her normally sparkly emerald green eyes were now dull and cast towards the floor. "Addy…" Lily said softly, her voice not even above a whisper. "When I was coming back from Hogsmede…I ran into Avery and Mulciber…we exchanged a few harsh words, and—ADDY!—they know who Carter Jones is!" she choked out.

"Oh, god, Lils," she muttered as she rushed over to her friend, enveloping her in a hug.

"Addy, what if he was working for Voldemort? What if—what if I inadvertently gave information about--?" Lily looked up at her long time friend, practically her sister, with wide eyes, absolutely terrified.

"Lils, don't even think about that for a moment. It was not your fault. It was Voldemort's. It's as simple as that," Adalyn said fiercely.

"Thanks, Addy," Lily mumbled. Standing up, she gave her friend a wicked smirk. "So you say the Marauders are standing outside, waiting for us, eh?"

"Lils…" Adalyn warned.

"Oh, hush. It won't be that bad. I just wanna test their reflexes," she smirked. "Addy, will you please help?" Lily begged, giving Adalyn the best puppy eyes she could manage.

"Oh, alright. You're too good with that look, did ya know that?" Adalyn sighed.

"Oh, but of course!" Lily squealed. "Why else would I do it if I knew that it wouldn't work?"

Adalyn rolled her eyes. "What do you need me to do?" she sighed.

"Not much, just open the door and let them in, but get out of the way before they know where they are. Dealsies?" Lily laughed.

"Dealsies," Adalyn said, smiling.

"Okey doke. Ready when you are, Addy," Lily said, after setting up the muggle football in front of her.

Adalyn headed over to the door, pulled it open, and stuck only her head out to speak to the Marauders. "Oi! You lot!" Addy called, when she saw that the Marauders hadn't seen her.

The four of them rushed over.

"How is she, Addy?" James asked hurriedly.

"Well," Adalyn sighed. "She's as good as expected, I suppose."

The expressions of the four Marauders were grim.

"Anywho...Lily said you lot could come in, if you like," Adalyn said, smiling.

"Should I be scared?" asked Remus.

"Nah, you should be fine," Adalyn replied, as she withdrew her head from the doorway and took off across the muggle football field, far away from the entrance.

The marauders stood outside the entrance for a moment, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"So who's going first?" Peter asked.

"Guys, come on," Sirius scoffed. "It's not like she's going to prank us or anything. We're the Marauders, for Merlin's sake."

"Too right you are, Padfoot!" James chimed in. "I'll go first."

Remus silently rolled his eyes when his three friends turned towards the door.

James opened the door, and Sirius followed. Nothing happened.

"Well that was anti-climatic," Remus muttered sarcastically.

"I told you she wouldn't prank us!" Sirius roared, full of arrogance.

As soon as the words had fallen out of Sirius' mouth, a football came soaring across the "room." James reached out to catch it, but as soon as his fingers brushed against the pristine surface, the ball split into four separate balls. They began repeatedly whacking each of the boys on their heads.

"EEP!" Sirius yelped, as he started running across the field. The ball chased him across the field.

The other three Marauders followed Sirius' idea, but they only succeeded in getting hit harder by the ball.

Lily couldn't help it anymore; she burst into giggles.

"Oi, Lils! Don't you think they've suffered enough?" Adalyn called across the field, after about five minutes of constant hounding of the Marauders.

Still giggling, Lily waved her wand, and the balls immediately fell to the ground, lifeless.

"Oi! What the hell was that for, Evans?" Sirius hollered from across the field.

"You thought I wouldn't prank you! I had to fix that!" Lily shouted back.

"Why are we shouting across this field?" Remus jumped in.

"Good point, Moony," James said, with a wicked grin.

"I don't like that look, Addy," Lily murmured out of the side of her mouth.

James took off running towards Lily.

"Oh marvellous Merlin! Addy, save me!" Lily screamed as she started to run away from James.

James wasn't a Quidditch player for nothing; he soon caught up to Lily and enveloped her in a big hug. Lily wouldn't have minded—she actually thought it was quite nice—but James made the mistake of putting his hand just in front of Lily's face. She screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud that everyone but she and Adalyn covered their ears. While she was screaming, Lily turned around and slapped James across the face.

"Ow!!!" James cried out.

"Oops?" Lily guessed.

"What was that for, Evans?" Sirius asked, coming over from the half line.

"He put his hands in my face."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Peter asked.

"Lily has a face bubble. You put hands in front of her face, and you will pay," Adalyn said.

"Making note of that," James muttered crossly.

"I'm sorry! It scares me! I think someone's going to hit me!" Lily exclaimed.

Adalyn shot Lily a warning look.

"What, Addy?" Lily asked, clueless.

"What do you think you just said?" Adalyn asked calmly, ignoring the Marauder's scared looks.

Lily covered her mouth, her eyes wide. "You four, pretend you never heard that!" Lily demanded towards the Marauders.

"Lils..." James began slowly.

"DON'T!" she screamed. "Never call me Lils! It's just bad." And with that, she took off towards the other goal, dribbling the football all the way with her before shooting the ball against the white goal.

The four Marauders turned to Adalyn, questioning looks in their eyes.

James spoke first. "Addy, what did I do?" he asked, broken.

"Oh, James, come here," Adalyn said, as she wrapped the upset James into a hug. "You didn't do anything on purpose. You just didn't know. Calling her 'Lils' and putting hands in her face bring back memories of that summer. It scares her when someone reminds her of something that she tries so hard to block out."

"But that's the point! I want—no, I need—to know what sets her off and what doesn't," James cried out.

"James, no one will. I don't even know everything. Just yesterday I learned that Lily won't go into a room full of people first. It absolutely terrifies her," Adalyn said soothingly.

"Wouldn't it help her to tell someone?" Remus asked.

Adalyn looked at him. "It would, but that would require her to actually remember it. You remember how she became a shell of a person in sixth year? How she lost so much weight? How the skin under her eyes turned black and blue due to lack of sleep? It was because she spent all of her energy blocking it out so she wouldn't have to remember it. There were endless nights where I would wake up to see her just sitting there, not moving. It takes so much energy for Lily to ignore it all."

"Sorry, James," Lily said quietly, appearing behind Adalyn. "I'm just scared. Every time someone says 'Lils' or puts their hands in front of my face, the memories from that summer come crashing back to me. I shouldn't have taken my fear out on you, so I'm sorry." She gently pulled James from Adalyn's arms and wrapped him into a hug.

For a second, James thought he died and went to heaven. Lily's hugs felt so warm and safe. "Bloody hell, Lily. You give good hugs," James breathed.

"Thanks?" Lily smiled.

"Anytime," James laughed.

"Okay, pretending that wasn't weird," Sirius said. "Moving on! I wanna play a game! I'm bored!"

"You wanna play football?" Lily asked, with a wicked grin on her face.

"Should I be scared, Addy?" Sirius asked.

"Very. Especially if you're playing Lily. Bad things tend to happen to other people when they play soccer with Lily," Adalyn laughed.

"Bad things?" Sirius asked, hesitantly.

"Well, if you're lucky, you'll escape with a broken arm," Adalyn smirked.

"Oi! THAT WAS ONE TIME! AND IT WASN'T EVEN MY FAULT!" Lily yelled.

"That's one more time than most other people," Sirius muttered.

"Oh, shush. As I said earlier, broken bones aren't that bad. And she got in my way! I wanted the ball!" Lily pouted.

"Care to give us _your_ story?" James asked.

Lily flashed him a bright smile. "Yay! Someone will actually listen to my version!"

James slightly smiled in return.

"Anyway, I was 10 and playing in a recreational league," Lily began.

"A recre—what?" Sirius asked.

"It's a type of league that's less competitive," Lily told him. "Back to the story, I was playing defence, which is sort of like a Beater in Quidditch. This other girl, who was playing forward, which is the equivalent of a Chaser, was coming towards me with the ball. Naturally, I went to get the ball from her. I LEAGALLY pushed her, and she fell over the ball, which resulted in a broken arm for her and a goal for my team," Lily finished happily.

"Sweet Merlin," Remus muttered.

"I am so not ever playing any competitive sports with you!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Good idea," Adalyn jumped in. "Don't ever play any competitive games with her—you'll probably end up with a handprint on your face."

Lily looked incredibly sheepish. "Can move off of my flaws and focus on something else?" she scowled.

"Here, I'll come play football with you," James offered.

"Whipped," Sirius coughed.

James simply glared in return. While James was busy glaring at Sirius, Lily took the opportunity to run to the other side of the field to retrieve the ball.

"Prongs, mate, I would go after her," Remus jumped in, trying to end the staring contest.

"Hah, you're about to get your arse kicked by a girl," Sirius taunted.

"James, just go chase Lils. You other three, shut the fuck up, got it?" Adalyn said, her motherly side coming out.

"Oi! Such foul language for a lady!" Sirius mock complained.

Adalyn merely rolled her eyes.

"Hey, how come you get to call Lily 'Lils' but no one else does?" Remus asked.

"I've called her 'Lils' for forever, and I just couldn't break the habit, so she got used to it, I suppose," Adalyn mused.

"That's not fair," Sirius complained.

"Life's not fair," Adalyn grinned.

The other three simply groaned; Adalyn and her sayings...

~_~_~_~

"_I want an endless supply of footballs_," Lily thought, asking the room.

Suddenly a large stack of balls appeared on Lily's left. She grinned; this room was Lily's favourite in the entire castle. Lily pulled a ball with her right foot, touched it off to her left, and shot it towards the goal.

_I love that swish_, Lily smiled to herself.

"Hey, you," James said, finally reaching Lily.

"Hey, yourself," Lily smiled back.

"I'm not gunna lie. I have absolutely no bloody idea how to play this sport," James grinned.

"It's really not that hard. Basically, you have one ball, it's called a football," Lily explained, holding out the white and black ball. "And you can't use your hands. You can only use your feet. If you're a forward—also known as strikers—your job is to get the ball in the goal, which is that big white thing. The keeper—also known as the goalie—defends the goal, except they get to use their hands. With me so far?"

"I think so. So forwards are basically like chasers? And the keeper's well...the keeper?" James asked.

Lily grinned. "Yup. Then there are defenders, which are basically like beaters. Their job is to prevent the ball from getting to the keeper in the first place. Am I making sense?"

"Yeah. It's not that complicated so far..." James replied, hesitantly.

"Don't worry, it's not going to get much more difficult. It's really not that complicated. And we'll forget midfielders for now. I was never a huge fan of that position."

"Bloody hell, there are too many positions!" James complained.

"Oh, shush. It's no worse than Quidditch."

"Okay, I wanna try it now!! I wanna kick the ball," James said as if he was a four year old little boy.

Lily let slip a little giggle, and before she knew it, she was laughing so hard she was crying. James at first glared at her—he hated being laughed at—but eventually he gave in and roared with laughter along with Lily.

"Oi! Will you two stop flirting and come over here!" Sirius hollered from across the field.

Lily immediately shut up and scowled in Sirius' direction. "You're a right prick, you know that?" Lily glared as she jogged over to the other three Marauders and Adalyn.

"Yeah, but it worked didn't it?" Sirius smirked.

"James, your best mate is a total wanker," Lily complained.

"Eh...You get used to him after a while," James laughed, coming over to the rest of the group.

"You're a right pain in the arse," Sirius mock glared at James. "You're a traitor!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"Oh bloody buggering hell. Sirius, get over yourself. Why did you call us over here?" Lily interfered.

"Oh right! I nearly forgot about that!" Sirius exclaimed, jumping up and down like a little boy.

"Oh marvellous Merlin," Lily muttered under her breath. "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this?"

Adalyn smirked. "You will."

"So I was thinking—" Sirius began.

"Uh oh...This can't be good. Nothing good ever comes from you thinking," James groaned.

Sirius paused to glare at James. "As I was saying, I wanted to play a game, and I was thinking about the games we used to play when we were younger. And then it came to me! I want to play Truth or Dare!" Sirius finished happily.

"What the hell. Why not?" Adalyn said.

"I'm in," Remus and Peter chimed at the same time.

James simply nodded.

"I am going to regret this," Lily groaned. "But I'm in too."

"Brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed.

The six teenagers arranged themselves into a circle and sat down on the football field.

"Does it strike anyone else as odd that we're playing truth or dare on a muggle football field?" Adalyn mused.

"Eh, whatever," Sirius waved it off. "I just wanna play. Addy, you're first," he grinned mischievously.

**A/N: Wow... that chapter dragged on forever... SORRY! It's like 30 pages, and the day's not even over! Anyways...Did you like it? We found out a bit more about Lily during this chapter. Some stuff was explained, but there's more to come! I hoped you liked it! Please review!!**


	4. Of Smiles and Pink Sparks

Chapter 4—Of Smiles and Pink Sparks

**Disclaimer: ****I own nothing you recognize. The whole world goes to J.K. Rowling as do most of the characters and the song credit goes to The Killers.**

**A/N: So I have a question, are you more likely to read my author's notes at the top or the bottom? I'm just curious. ****And, yes, I know there are a few totally cliché moments in this chapter. Oh, and major thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! I love you!**

_Last Chapter..._

_I want to play Truth or Dare!" Sirius finished happily._

"_What the hell. Why not?" Adalyn said._

"_I'm in," Remus and Peter chimed at the same time._

_James simply nodded._

"_I am going to regret this," Lily groaned. "But I'm in too."_

"_Brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed._

_The six teenagers arranged themselves into a circle and sat down on the football field._

"_Does it strike anyone else as odd that we're playing truth or dare on a muggle football field?" Adalyn mused._

"_Eh, whatever," Sirius waved it off. "I just wanna play. Addy, you're first," he grinned mischievously._

Back to the present we go! *_*_*_*

"Wait!" Lily interjected. Without telling anyone what she was doing, Lily waved her wand in an intricate pattern, first sweeping to the right, a quick turn of the wrist to the left, and finally bringing her wand directly down.

"What did you just do?" Peter asked hesitantly.

"Wait and See!" Lily sang.

The four Marauders exchanged worried looks. Adalyn merely grinned. She'd played Truth or Dare with Lily many times before, therefore she knew what spell Lily just cast, but wasn't about to explain it to the Marauders. They would just have to find out.

"Okay, Addy. Truth or Dare?" Sirius asked, grinning.

"Ah, what the hell, dare," Adalyn declared.

"Addy, you're going to regret this," Lily said worriedly.

"I dare you to serenade Dumbledore at breakfast tomorrow," Sirius laughed.

Adalyn joined in Sirius' laughter. "I can do that. He'll get a kick out of it. Right, okay. Hm... Who shall be the next victim?" Adalyn cackled evilly. After surveying the group, she said, "Jamesie Poo! Truth or Dare?"

James contemplated it for a minute. "Truth. Too lazy to do a Dare."

"Anybody got a good truth for James?" Adalyn asked the rest of the group.

"Oh! I got one!" Sirius grinned mischievously. "Who is Dow?"

James gave his best mate a shocked expression and then promptly sent him a glare, too. "Erm—Dow was the names of one of my mum's horses," James stuttered in response.

Before anyone could say anything, James' pants turned into white skin tight pants with flames going up the side. Lily and Adalyn collapsed into giggles, while the other three Marauders roared with laughter. "You—hehehe—lied!" gasped Lily while she continued to giggle. The girls were laughing so hard that they were crying long after the Marauders stopped.

"Alright," James grumbled. "It wasn't that funny."

"But it was!" shrieked Adalyn.

The four boys stared at the girls as if they weren't human.

"Okay," Lily gasped as she began her method of taking a quick succession of short shallow breaths, while waving her hands near her face. After a moment, she stopped laughing enough so that she could speak. "You remember that spell I cast before the game started?"

The Marauders all nodded their heads slowly.

"Well, it's based off of a muggle kids' rhyme that goes 'Liar, Liar, pants on fire.' And seeing as I grew up with muggles and Addy is obsessed with their sayings, the spell is especially hilarious to us. That, and it's always hilarious when we see a guy in white skin tight pants," Lily smirked.

The Marauders' jaws simultaneously dropped in response to Lily's comment.

"Oi, Addy! Did you see that?" Lily stage whispered.

"Yeah, I did. It's almost as if—"Adalyn replied, a smirk growing on her face.

"They're the same person!" the two chorused.

"Yup, they definitely are," concluded Lily. "Remember that time, with the-?"

"Oohh, yeah," responded Adalyn. "I totally forgotten about that, but you're totally right!"

"And you're just now realising this? I'm always right!" Lily said, with a fake arrogant air about her.

Throughout the conversation, the Marauders remained silent, watching the utterly bizarre event that was taking place before them.

Finally, Sirius exclaimed, "Will you two put a bloody cap on it?"

The two turned towards the other four, with very good innocent looks on their faces. James, Sirius, and Remus all suddenly got the feeling that there were a lot more to these girls than they thought. And they also knew that they had gotten up to a lot more than anyone gave them credit for.

Lily leaned over to Adalyn and whispered, "He totally stole that from you didn't he?"

"He did!" Adalyn responded indignantly. "Prat," she muttered as she mock-glared at Sirius.

"Oi! Adds, I got another question," Lily whispered again.

"What?"

"Why are we whispering?" Lily smirked.

"Oh, Lily! That is just bad!" Adalyn laughed.

"You know you loved it," she smiled.

"That's true."

"I do actually have a question though," Lily carried on, not paying attention to the Marauders at all.

"What?"

"The Code?"

"Ah, but of course," Adalyn replied with a wink.

Sirius jumped in, eloquently saying, "What the bloody hell are you on about now?"

Lily smirked. "The Code. It's a list of rules that dictates what we can or can't say or do."

"Gee, thanks," James responded dryly, "because that makes all the sense in the world."

Lily scoffed. "Well, now you're the bloody idiot because do you actually think we're going to tell you what is in our Code? It'd be a violation of—"

"Rule number 713," Adalyn added in.

"There's 713 rules?" Remus asked obviously stunned.

"There's a hell of a lot more than that. But that's all we're going to talk about it because I actually want to know who 'Dow' is. James?" Lily smiled.

"You know Padfoot? Lily is right—you're a total wanker," James glared at his best mate.

"What was that for?" Sirius asked, shocked.

"Well, gee, I dunno. Maybe because you asked the question?" he responded sarcastically.

Sirius' mouth formed a perfect O, and there was a brief silence among the group.

James eventually sighed and said, "Dow WAS my favourite stuffed animal as a child. I took her everywhere I went. And, before any of you ask, Dow came from the name Kelly. Long story behind that one. You can ask that as a different question later."

The rest of the group erupted into laughter, while Sirius had a triumphant smirk on his face, and James glared at all of them.

"Okay, moving on!" James said loudly. "Padfoot! Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," he said confidently.

"Goody!" James exclaimed, mischievousness lighting up his eyes. "You get to serenade McGonagall when Addy serenades Dumbledore!"

Sirius roared with laughter. "The look on her face will be priceless!"

The others joined in Sirius' laughter. Lily made a mental note to bring a camera to breakfast the next day.

"Lilybean! You're next! Truth or Dare?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"I'm afraid of any of your dares. Truth," Lily said.

"Yes! I was hoping you'd say that!"

"Uh oh...Now I'm scared," Lily moaned.

"I was going to ask you this earlier in Hogsmede," Sirius began, not noticing Lily's face clouding over. "But you left. So my question is what is this family fortune?"

Lily froze, before jumping into action. "ADALYN ELIZABETH REEVES!" Lily screamed. "HOW DARE YOU TELL THEM ABOUT THAT?" Lily shrieked incredulously.

"Oops?" Adalyn guessed.

"You suck at being my best mate," Lily complained.

"In my defence, I was trying to explain you. And it slipped out," Adalyn explained. "But I only said 'family for—' Sirius must have figured the rest out."

Lily glared at Adalyn. "Well, since you lot already know, I guess I'll explain it. My parents are scientists—which are sort of like Muggle healers. Anyway, my Dad is also a doctor, which really is a muggle healer, and he started a company with some of the people he works with. The company was designed to research and create more effective ways of scanning someone's heart and crafting more effective medicine for those who have horrible diseases. Bottom line, the company did really well and now earns about 10 million pounds a year, divided among the four of them. So my Dad earns about 2.5 million pounds a year, on top of his normal salary," Lily explained sheepishly.

"Damn..." Sirius said slowly.

James whistled. "That's a lot of money."

"I know it is," Lily scowled. "This is why I didn't tell anyone about it except for Addy. I didn't want people to like me just for my money, and I didn't want them to think I was a rich snob."

"I don't think anyone in this school thinks you're a rich snob," James said.

"Yeah, I know," Lily replied. "And we're going to keep it that way." She sighed. "Moving on, Addy, Truth or Dare?"

"You know too many secrets of mine. Dare," she replied.

"Anyone have a good dare for Addy?" Lily asked. "I'm horrible at coming up with dares."

"I have one!" Sirius exclaimed, as he bounced up and down.

"Okay, shoot."

"I dare you to make out with Avery in the Great Hall at breakfast tomorrow," Sirius grinned wickedly.

"No. Absolutely not. NO FUCKING WAY ," Lily interrupted. "No one can do anything with Avery or Mulciber. I refuse to allow it."

"You won't allow it, eh, Lilybean?" Sirius mocked.

"No. I know things about them that you don't, Sirius. I refuse to let any of my mates anywhere near them."

"Like what?" Sirius taunted.

"I—I don't think I can say. I'd have to explain too much," Lily tried to explain, sending a pleading look towards Adalyn that everyone else missed.

"Dammit, I hate when girls do that," Sirius whined.

"What do you mean, Blackie?" Adalyn asked.

"When girls are like 'I know this secret...But I can't tell you.' Why the hell do they bring it up in the first place?" Sirius ranted.

"Oh, really? Do you really hate it that much?" Lily asked coldly.

"Yes! It's bloody annoying!" Sirius continued to whine, completely unaware of Lily's manner.

Lily face contorted in anger. Her eyes narrowed into slits, and she stood up, moving over towards Sirius. "You want to know that badly, do you?" she asked, her voice dangerously quiet.

"Yes!" Sirius complained.

"Fine. Sirius, let's explain it then, shall we? Oh, yeah. It starts with them being bloody MINI DEATH EATERS! And then it goes all the way to them knowing about Carter Jones, which means he's probably linked to Voldemort, which probably means I brought old Voldy to me two summers ago! Yes, I know those two EXTREMELY well. We've had plenty of BLOODY _fantastic_ conversations," Lily ranted sarcastically.

Sirius' expression was pure shock, to say the least. The other three Marauders' expressions were no different. Adalyn looked mildly surprised that Lily would so openly tell the four boys about her brutal summer after 5th year.

When everyone regained their consciousness, they looked up to find Lily, only to discover that she was no longer there and the Room of Requirement turned into a boring cinder block wall room.

"Um...What the hell just happened?" Sirius finally said after a few moments.

"Well, Blackie," Adalyn began, slightly miffed. "Your ranting made Lily pretty pissed off, and you didn't realize it when she was about to explode, so you pushed her a bit more. She eventually did explode, which left you with a hell of a lot of information about Lily's shitty summer. And Lils is probably trying to slit her wrists right now because of what you made her remember!" she finished, shrieking.

"Woah, Addy, chill out. We have to think about this rationally. Is Lily really slitting her wrists? Or was that just another Addy figure of speech?" Remus asked, taking control of the situation.

"Nah, I'm just being overdramatic," Adalyn sighed.

"Okay, good. We don't have to worry about Lily dying quite yet," Remus slightly smiled.

Everyone else just rolled their eyes.

"Right, next major issue. Voldemort attacked Lily?" Remus asked Adalyn incredulously.

"Yeah, it's what made her summer so brutal," Adalyn sighed. "I'm not really sure how much I'm supposed to tell you other than Sirius you're going to die. Just thought you oughta know," she finished lightly.

"Other than a death from you, why else am I going to die?" Sirius asked.

"Well, you royally pissed off Lils, making her tell you four one of her darkest secrets. She's either going to make your life living hell, or she's going to try and pretend it never happened," Adalyn explained.

"I hope it's the second one. I'm gunna die if it's the first one," Sirius replied, half scared.

"I'm not so sure you want the second one, either. Lils is very good at making everyone believe something never happened," Adalyn informed Sirius.

"Moony! Help! I don't wanna die!" Sirius yelped.

"Oh, hush, Padfoot. You won't die. Just apologize to Lily," Remus mutter, still distracted about Lily.

"Hey, James...You okay?" Adalyn asked, noticing James hadn't said anything about Lily yet.

James didn't respond, too wrapped up in his thoughts. _How the hell can one person be wrapped up in so much drama?_ He wondered to himself incredulously. _There's all the drama with Snape and Callie, making her loose two different close mates. And now this? How the hell does she wake up every morning? Or even put one foot in front of another?_ He voiced his thoughts.

"Honestly, James? I have no idea. Lils is a strong person, she's stronger than any of us," Adalyn replied honestly.

"Mmm..." James said distractedly. Another thought occurred to him: _I don't think Addy knows the whole story. I mean, yeah, facing Voldemort sucks, but it's not enough to make Lils as skittish as she is. It wouldn't explain why she can't deal with people putting their hands near her face. Or about the nickname 'Lils.' There are some major pieces of this story missing._ James craved to know what those missing pieces were. However, more than anything, he wanted to simply _help_ Lily. It wasn't easy for him to watch someone he cared for so much be hurt so badly. "Say, Addy. Do you think I could go find Lily? Or should I wait and let her cool off a little?" James asked.

"Go, James," Adalyn said gently. "She needs someone who will comfort her."

James nodded, completely missing the compliment Adalyn had just given him. He was entirely focused on finding Lily.

After a moment's silence, Remus asked "Do you guys ever notice the pattern we seem to be following?"

"Yeah, I do," Adalyn sighed.

"What pattern?" Sirius asked clueless.

"Lily gets upset; we find out something new about her; terrified, she leaves; Prongs gets all bothered that he doesn't know whatever we all just learned and leaves; and then the four of us are always left," Remus explained.

"We're getting predictable!" Sirius cried dramatically.

Adalyn giggled, while Remus rolled his eyes. Peter laughed, trying to impress Sirius.

Lily raced to the Head's common room, her heart pounding in her ears, while flashes of that summer kept blurring her vision. Gasping, she gave Lady Morgana the password before scampering into the safety of the common room.

"GOD DAMMIT! FUCK HIM! HE'S A SHITFACE! I HATE HIS FUCKING GUTS! WHAT A BLOODY WANKER!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. "He's taking over my life again! Even when I try to take control back, him and HIS DAMN FACE screw it all up again." One fat tear rolled down Lily's broken face and landed with a splash on the ground. Before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face. It was all she could do to reach her favourite chair and curl up into a ball before sobbing her heart out. She cried because she gave one of her secrets away, she cried to grieve, and she cried because of him. It was the first time in a long while that Lily truly allowed herself to properly think about that summer.

James jogged towards the Head's common room, praying to Merlin that Lily was there, and not hidden somewhere else in the vast Hogwarts.

"Spero," he gasped towards the portrait of Lady Morgana.

"What is it with you two tonight?" Lady Morgana cried out.

"How do you mean?" James asked, startled.

"Well you both have come here, running, and gasping the password. I should warn you that she's in a right state," Lady Morgana explained.

James' face drained of colour. "Oh, bloody hell. Can you let me in?"

As the portrait swung open, James dashed in, only to skid to a halt. Lily's broken form nearly shattered his heart. Her small body was curled up into a ball, and her chest was heaving with sobs. James hesitantly made his way over towards her, not really sure what to do.

"Lily?" he asked softly.

Lily didn't have to raise her head to know who uttered her name; she'd know that voice anywhere. "Oh, bloody hell," she grumbled.

James froze. _Does my presence bug her that much?_ He wondered to himself.

"Such a pathetic wimp...can't even talk about it without breaking down..." she muttered to herself. "What they must think of me..."

"Lily?" James asked again, not entirely sure she knew he was there.

She lifted her head and looked emptily towards James. He couldn't think of any other way to describe her other than broken. Her normally vivacious emerald green eyes were empty. They seemed to go on for miles without any emotion. Lily was still curled up in a ball; her arms wrapped around her knees, as if they were the only things holding her together.

James was at a lost for what to do and say. He knew there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say to take away her pain away. He wished Adalyn was here. Adalyn always knew what to do. But it was only James and Lily. He walked around to the back of her chair and softly touched her shoulders. He began slowly massaging her shoulders. At first, she tensed at his touch, as if she was afraid. But the longer James' fingers worked against her tense muscles, the more relaxed Lily became. Eventually she leaned into his comfort.

"You know it's going to be okay, right?" James asked, softly.

"It's not," she said, shaking her head. "It's all my fault. It's always my fault. If I hadn't—then—he—sur—"she broke off brokenly.

"Lily, can I ask you a question?" James asked hesitantly.

"You can, but I won't guarantee I'll answer it," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What really happened? I know there's more to it than what you told us. I don't think you told even Addy the whole story," James asked. He knew he was treading a very fine line with Lily.

Lily smiled bittersweetly. "You really are quite smart, James. I never gave you enough credit. Yes, there is more to the story. And yes, you're right; I haven't told Addy the whole story. But you mustn't tell her that, she'd be heartbroken if she knew. Not tonight, though. I know you want to know the whole story, and I've been told time and time again to confide in someone. However, tonight, as it is, holds enough emotional baggage. I don't want to add any more to it."

James was slightly bewildered for a moment. He didn't understand the last part of Lily's short monologue. What did she mean by "tonight holds enough emotional baggage?" Mentally sighing, James decided to leave that question for later; he knew he wasn't going to get an answer tonight. Instead, he asked, "How do you plan to deal with Addy when she does find out the whole story?"

Lily looked torn. "I don't know. I can picture her reaction in my head, and it scares the hell out of me."

"Why don't you just tell her now? That way, it will be over sooner rather than later?" James asked, confused.

"Because I hate bloody sympathy. If you had been told 'I'm so sorry!' as my times as I have, then you would hate it, too," she replied darkly.

"Why? People are only trying to show you how much they care," James softly said.

"Yeah, sure, they care. That's great. It's bloody fantastic!" Lily said sarcastically. "But they have no idea what it actually feels like. They have no idea what it's like when you lose your best mate, twice. It's like having your whole world ripped away from you. You don't know how to put one foot in front of the other without your best mate by your side, let alone how to go anywhere. The world's a scary place when you don't have your best mate," Lily sadly explained. "And then to go through what I went through? It's hell, James. I don't know if you've put this together yet—oh, who am I kidding you probably have—but I'll say it anyways. When I had to face Voldemort, for the first time ever in my life, I didn't have my best mate next to me. I'm not talking about Addy, or even my sister. I'm talking about Severus. The end of 5th year, I lost my best mate. And that summer held some of the hardest moments in my life."

James' mouth formed a perfect O. Lily spoke with so much wisdom, wisdom that she shouldn't have had for many more years. "Why would Snape be there next to you while you were facing Voldemort? Or do you mean like in spirit-type support?" he asked.

"James," Lily began softly. "He lives just down the street from me. If our friendship hadn't ended, he would have been there, fighting with me. But, fate's a bitch. So he ended up fighting against me. Trying to send bloody _Avada Kedavra_s at me. It's ironic isn't it? My old best mate trying to kill me," Lily laughed hollowly.

His face paled. "Why would Snape try to kill you?" James asked, dreading the answer he already knew.

"Come on, James. I know you're not this naive. Why do you think?" Lily replied.

"He's a Death Eater, isn't he?" James asked.

Lily sighed. "Yes, he is."

There was a moment's pause between the two. Each was lost in his own thoughts.

"Bloody hell, Lily!" James suddenly yelled.

Lily jumped, frightened.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," James said regretfully.

"Don't worry about it. I'll eventually get used to loud sounds again. What was the exclamation for, though?"

"How the hell do you deal with it all?" James asked.

"You learn," Lily shrugged. "The first major event happens, and you learn how to get out of bed in the morning. Then you learn how to put one foot in front of the other. Eventually, you learn how to be happy. Then the next major event happens, and you repeat the process. Life is nothing more than a circle."

"Bloody hell, Lily. You sound like Dumbledore," James said in disbelief.

"Well I should," Lily grinned. "I stole that from him."

James laughed. Her mischievous sprit never ceased to amaze him. "Well, I dunno about you, but I'm completely zonked after today. I'm going to get some sleep. You should think about it, too."

"Yeah, I'll probably head to bed in a minute, too."

"Oh, and Lily? If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I'll do whatever you need, okay?" James offered.

"Thanks, James," Lily smiled sincerely.

As he closed his door for the night, he left Lily to her thoughts, which strangely didn't drift towards that horrible summer, but instead, they danced around James. Lily marvelled at just how good of a friend James was. She fell asleep that night in her chair, staring into the flames, and thinking about James.

After the Truth or Dare game, Sirius was a bit skittish around Lily for a couple weeks. He was terrified that she was going to murder him for what he made her reveal. Lily surprised all of them: she didn't do what Adalyn thought she was going to do. She simply let it be. Lily realised Sirius had no way of knowing about her bad relationship with Avery and Mulciber.

The more the leaves on the trees next to the lake changed, the more Lily realized exactly how much had changed since the beginning of the year. The biggest change was no longer having Callie as a mate. And because Alice was Callie's best mate, it meant that Lily and Alice rarely got a chance to see each other. Lily missed both of them dearly, but knew going down the dark and twisty road of being Callie's mate again was just a bad idea. She could only hope that Lily and Alice could once again be mates. On the brighter side of things, Adalyn and Lily had been hanging out with the Marauders more and more. So much so, that it became almost rare to see the group not together. Most of the students across Hogwarts began to assume where there was one, the rest would soon follow.

To say that Lily was in a bad mood today would be an understatement. Lily wanted nothing more than to go back to her dorm, pull on a hoodie, and simply be angry at the world. Alas, she could not do this because she was still walking back from Ancient Runes, and Addy as well as the Marauders would most likely be in the Head's Common Room. Sighing, Lily continued her trek. Her walk back from Ancient Runes was always quiet, seeing as none of her friends took the lesson with her; they all found the subject to be quite dull. To be honest, Lily didn't adore the subject, but she took it none the less. She did, however, enjoy the walk back to her dormitory. It always gave her the chance to think.

Today, Lily's mind was whirling with anger. It seemed nothing was going right today.

"Oi! LILY!" a voice from behind her yelled.

"What do you want?" Lily yelled over her shoulder.

"I only wanted to say hi," the voice grumbled.

Lily turned around to see James. She gave him a brief fake smile and continued towards the dorms.

"Lily!" James called again. "Bloody hell! Why do I always end up chasing you?"

"Maybe eventually you'll get the message," Lily growled.

"What the hell, Lily?" James yelled.

Lily's back resolutely remained facing him.

"You know what? Fine! I'm done with you treating me like shit! When you want to be friends, we're friends. When you want to talk, we talk. When you want to go back to treating me like shit, you do so! Bloody hell, Lily! I can't do this anymore! I'm done with all of your waffling! Pick a path and stick to it!" James yelled, completely frustrated. He turned around and walked away from Lily.

Lily hadn't moved throughout James' speech. She remained in the same spot once James left. The only difference was the tears streaming down her anguished face. That was just the cherry on top of her day. Not only had everything else gone wrong, but now she had gotten in a fight with James. After a moment, Lily gathered herself and headed to the Head's common room.

She was not normally the person to wallow in self-pity for Lily despised pity more than anything in the whole world. Today, however, was different. She pulled her Harvard hoodie out of her closest and crawled into her bed. Pulling her muggle MP3 player off her nightstand, Lily lost herself in the music. Normally, the lyrics would consume her, and Lily would be transported to the artist's world. Not today. Today, Lily just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened during her day.

**Flashback**

_Lily danced into Potions, her second lesson of the day. The day had begun well: there was hot chocolate at breakfast, Lily's favourite drink in the whole world. Advanced Charms hadn't been that bad either, seeing as Flitwick just lectured for the whole period. As she sat down at her normal desk, she began pulling her things out of her bag: a quill, ink, and two sheets of parchment. One sheet of parchment was half-filled with notes, while the other was full of doodles, random song lyrics, as well as a number of other things. Lily mindlessly doodled until the lesson began._

_ "Okay!" Slughorn boomed. "Today we are going to talk about the Fundamental Theorem of Potion Making. Now, due to the name, it seems like this is something you should have learned in first year," he chuckled. "But the theorem isn't as important as it seems. It's simply named this because several people discovered this so it is difficult to name the theorem after one person. Now these people include—"_

_ Slughorn was interrupted as Callie banged into the dungeon, a full ten minutes late to the lesson. Callie, who Lily noticed had little to no respect for authority or rules, was wearing a bright pink shirt and a tiara instead of the usual uniform worn by Hogwarts students. Lily rolled her eyes. How could she forget? Today was Callie's birthday. And, Callie being Callie decided she was the greatest person to ever walk the earth and therefore didn't need to pay attention to the rules of Hogwarts. _For Merlin's sake!_ Lily thought to herself. _It's as if she's turning 2, not 18! _Rolling her eyes, Lily resumed her doodling._

_ Slughorn's booming voice seeped through her wall of silence when she heard him say, "Now Miss Collinwood, seeing as you are a good friend of Miss Evans, I shall not punish you. But perhaps you could learn a few lessons from her in regards to rules and tardiness." _

_ Lily froze. _He did not just say that. He did not just say that, _Lily repeated over and over to herself. Not only did he miss the fact that the two weren't mates anymore, but he also broadcasted the fact that was interpreted by many as Lily Evans being a prude. She audibly sighed. If she could've, she would've left the lesson right then and there and hidden for the rest of the day. But, her conscience had too much of a say, so Lily remained in the lesson, quietly doodling and taking notes. It was a fairly normal lesson, until there were about 30 minutes left in the period, when Callie and Slughorn got in an argument over whether or not Sally Evermore had ever published an article titled "Steal this Article." After a short discussion, Mary Matthews, another 7__th__ year Gryffindor girl, was sent to the library to ask Madam Prince about it. After all, Madam Prince knew nearly everything that had ever been published. Slughorn continued on with his lesson but paused when Mary Matthews returned._

_ "It was written by Kathy Chavez," Mary announced._

_ "There are two!" insisted Callie. "I know there are!"_

_ Everyone in the class rolled their eyes. This was just another classic example of Callie not being able to admit when she's wrong._

"_I asked Madam Prince about that, too, just to double check," Mary replied. "But, Sally Evermore never wrote anything called 'Steal this Article.' Sorry, Callie."_

_ "But she did! It was leaked, so it was never published due to copyright reasons!" Callie argued._

_ Lily gripped her quill tighter. Reaching for her doodle parchment, she continually wrote 'STFU.' If anyone chanced a look at the parchment, they wouldn't know what Lily meant, but she knew it meant 'Shut the fuck up!'_

_ Even Slughorn rolled his eyes at Callie's comment, but before he could respond, the bell rang, ending the lesson. Lily swiftly collected her things and swept out of the classroom. These days, Callie annoyed her too much, and Lily could barely stand to be in the same room as her for longer than required. _

_ Not paying attention to where she was going, Lily slammed into someone. Looking up, she saw it was James._

_ "Sorry," Lily muttered, as she turned to walk away._

_ "Uh uh. Not so fast, Lily," James smiled. "We're friends now, remember? You can't avoid me like the plague anymore!"_

_ "You picked that up from Addy, didn't you?" Lily smirked._

_ "Perhaps..."_

_ "Either way, bye, James," Lily sighed._

_ "Lily! Wait!" James called._

_ "What, James?"_

_ "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You looked kinda pissed off during Potions," James replied, concerned._

_ "I'll be fine," Lily replied shortly, looking anywhere but James' face._

_ "Lily, come on. I know you're lying," James pleaded._

_ "Don't worry about me, James. Go find the Marauders and Addy. I need sometime alone."_

_ "Just because you're getting away this time doesn't mean you're free," James insisted. "I'll find you later."_

_"Bye, James," Lily waved, as she headed towards the library._

**End of Flashback**

"Bloody buggering hell," Lily exclaimed to herself. James was just coming to make sure she was alright, she realised. "I am such a fucking idiot," she mumbled aloud.

Sighing, she knew what she had to do. Rolling out of bed, she pulled herself together to go find James. When she opened her door, music came floating up the stairs.

James sat in the middle of the floor, near Lily's favourite corner. He had an electric guitar in his lap, with sheet music in front of him. His back was to the fire, and every time he looked up, he saw the Quidditch Pitch outside the window. James decided to take a leaf out of Lily's book and use his music to wash his problems away. Strumming a few chords, he began to sing:

_On the corner of main street  
Just tryin__' to keep it in line  
You say you wanna move on and  
You say I'm falling behind_

Can you read my mind?  
Can you read my mind?

I never really gave up on  
Breakin' out of this two-star town  
I got the green light  
I got a little fight  
I'm gonna turn this thing around

Can you read my mind?  
Can you read my mind?

The good old days, the honest man;  
The restless heart, the Promised Land  
A subtle kiss that no one sees;  
A broken wrist and a paid trapeze

Oh well I don't mind, if you don't mind  
'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine  
Before you go, can you read my mind?

Lily fought hard to remain silent. After all of the times she sat in that very corner, playing guitar, she never realised that there were two right handed guitars. And she never in a million years even guessed that James played guitar. Trying hard to make sure her concentration didn't waver, Lily crept silently down the steps, watching James play all the while. However, she paused at the last bend in the staircase, making sure James couldn't see her. She sat down on the grey stone steps and curled her feet underneath her as she listened to James sing.__

Its funny how you just break down  
Waitin' on some sign  
I pull up to the front of your driveway  
With magic soakin' my spine

Can you read my mind?  
Can you read my mind?

The teenage queen, the loaded gun;  
The drop dead dream, the Chosen One  
A southern drawl, a world unseen;  
A city wall and a trampoline

Oh well I don't mind, if you don't mind  
'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine  
Before you jump  
Tell me what you find when you read my mind  


Lily felt something stirring inside her stomach but couldn't quite place what it was.

_Slippin in my faith until I fall  
You never returned that call  
Woman, open the door, don__'t let it sting  
I wanna breathe that fire again_

She said I don't mind, if you don't mind  
'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine

Put your back on me  
Put your back on me  
Put your back on me

The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun  
When you read my mind

James finished the song with one last chord, allowing the sound to resonate throughout the common room. Before he could've looked up, Lily dashed back up to her room and closed the door silently. She slid down the wall, winding up in a ball breathing heavily. She'd meant to go apologize to James, and then what happened? To be honest, Lily couldn't even explain it to herself.

A few days passed and it became extremely apparent that something was wrong with Lily and James. James was quieter than usual, where as Lily walked around with an almost confused look upon her face. The most obvious clue was that the group no longer went nearly everywhere together.

"Prongs, what the bloody hell happened between you two?" Sirius exclaimed one morning in the Great Hall. "You two are just downright depressing!"

"I'm sorry that I'm not bubbly enough for you, Padfoot," James responded sarcastically.

"Sweet Merlin," Sirius groaned. "Why not just apologize?"

"Because this time I know I'm right. I didn't do anything wrong," James replied cryptically.

Meanwhile, a short ways down the table, Adalyn was having the same conversation with Lily.  
"Marvellous Merlin, child! Just apologize already!" Adalyn exclaimed. "It's really not that hard, contrary to popular belief."

A true look of confusion passed over Lily's face as she said, "You don't get it. Hell, even _I_ don't get it, and it's _my_ brain!"

Adalyn simply shot her a look that plainly said, "What in Merlin's name are you on about?" But she didn't respond to that. Instead, she said, "I've got to go talk to Sirius; I'll see you in Charms."

"Have fun," Lily smirked.

"LILY EVANS!" Adalyn yelled. "YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT! You are absolutely horrible."

"Who, me?" Lily responded innocently. "I didn't say anything. You just interpreted it that way."

"I've changed my mind. You are not just horrible, you are also despicable."

"You know you love me!" Lily called after her as Adalyn left to talk to Sirius.

"Oh, Blackie," Adalyn sang as she skipped over to the Marauders.

"This doesn't sound like its gunna be good," Sirius moaned.

"Jamie, Remmy, and Petey: Can I steal Blackie here?" Adalyn asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oi! Why do I have to be Jamie?" James complained. "That's a girl's name!"

Adalyn rolled her eyes, and then she pointed at Lily. "Lily." She pointed at herself, "Addy." She pointed at Sirius, "Blackie." She pointed at Remus, "Remmy." She pointed at Peter, "Petey." Finally, she pointed at James, "Jamie. See the pattern?"

James only grumbled in response.

"Can it, you," Adalyn laughed. "I guess you could be Potty, if you wanted to," she smirked.

James looked utterly torn. "I guess I'll have to stick with Jamie," he sighed in defeat.

Adalyn only laughed at his fake-pouty face. "Anyways, I really do need to talk to Blackie."

"Go ahead," he replied.

"Bloody buggering hell," Adalyn sighed. "You lot make this really difficult. But I need to talk to Blackie. Alone."

Instantly, Adalyn got the reaction she'd been dreading: the four boys exchanged knowing grins.

She groaned aloud. "Get your minds out of the gutter, you prats!"

Remus laughed. "Your sayings just keep getting better and better, Addy."

"Why thank you, kind sir. Blackie," she said as she grabbed his arm. "Let's go!"

James laughed and made a whipping sound loud enough for Sirius to hear as he and Addy left the Great Hall. Remus and Peter roared with laughter, while Sirius glared at James.

Lily watched the whole exchange with a slight smile on her face. What she wouldn't give to be over there, laughing with Remus and Peter. And the worst part was she knew she could fix all of it in a split second, with one small conversation. And for some reason, unbeknownst to Lily, she couldn't bring herself to go talk to James. It was if there was a wall that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out a way to knock it down. Lily sat there for some time, just thinking, before she heard the bell and headed off to Charms.

Adalyn dragged Sirius towards an empty classroom without saying a word. She threw him into the room and locked the door behind her.

Sirius was slightly shocked, to say the least. "Addy, what the hell is going on? Because as far as I know, you just dragged Hogwarts' most eligible bachelor into an empty classroom and locked the door."

Adalyn groaned. "Galloping Gargoyles, Sirius! It's nothing like that! Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"Galloping Gargoyles?" Sirius asked. "Did you get that from Lily?"

"Surprisingly, no," Adalyn replied.

Sirius sent her a questioning look.

She grinned. "Hagrid."

He laughed before saying, "What's really going on, then?"

"If you would stop asking questions for five minutes I would tell you," she growled in response.

"Okay, okay. Continue on, my dear maiden," Sirius responded sarcastically.

Adalyn sent him a sharp glare before saying, "We have to fix Lily and James."

"No."

"Excuse me?" Adalyn replied, genuinely shocked.

"You heard me."

"And why not?" she demanded.

"No because it's their relationship, not ours. We need to stop meddling. No because they need to learn how to make up on their own. No because James seems to think he doesn't need to apologise this time, so let it be different. No because all we seem to ever talk about is them. Why don't we ever talk about anything else?"

Completely and utterly speechless, Adalyn stood there for a moment processing what Sirius had just said. Finally she said, "We do talk about other things."

"Like what?" Sirius replied, arching his brow.

"Like...lessons...and Remus and Peter," Adalyn stuttered, grasping for possible answers.

"You and I both know that is complete bullshit. I'm sorry, but lessons don't count. And Remus and Peter are just more examples of us talking about nothing but other people," Sirius spat.

Adalyn blinked. "Fine," she replied coolly. "If that's how you want it..." she trailed off as she walked out the door and towards Charms.

Sirius never showed up to Charms or to Transfiguration. He only resurfaced at lunch but only because he was physically dragged into the Great Hall by the other Marauders.

"What the hell happened?" Remus asked, completely bewildered.

"Me and Addy got in a fight," he growled in response.

"Am I allowed to ask what it was about?" James prodded.

"You can," Sirius replied shortly. There was a pregnant pause before Sirius said, "What? Do you really think I'm going to tell you what some chick and I fought about?"

James made a motion for Sirius to stop talking, but he kept going.

"I mean really. She's just some chick who's like all of the other fucked up girls in this place. She doesn't give a damn about half the people around her."

"Well, Sirius. If I'm _some chick_ then I guess I won't bother apologising to you," Adalyn said quietly from behind him.

Next, a series of events happened so fast, it was nearly impossible to tell what happened in what order. Sirius spun around to see Adalyn staring him down, and his jaw fell open. Lily appeared suddenly, waved her wand in a complicated motion, sending out pink sparks. She drew her left hand back and slapped Sirius full across the face, leaving a bright red handprint. "Never, ever, call my best friend 'some chick,'" she hissed before waving her wand again and the pink sparks appeared out of thin air and went back into her wand.

By the time everyone processed what happened, Lily and Adalyn were gone, nowhere to be seen.

"What in the fuck just happened?" Sirius asked.

"Well, Padfoot," Remus sighed. "I would say you insulted Addy, which royally pissed Lily off. Do I need to remind you that those two are probably the only two Hogwarts girls who can make your life living hell should you piss them off?"

Sirius groaned. "Why didn't anyone tell me she was right there?"

"I tried to, mate," James shrugged. "But you didn't want to listen."

"This day sucks," he complained, banging his head on the table repeatedly.

The next period went by quickly. Even though all six had a free period, they rarely caught a glimpse of each other. James and Sirius were out on the Quidditch Pitch, flying and thinking about how much the day sucked. Remus could be found in the library, getting ahead on homework because the day after the next day was the full moon. Adalyn could be found in the kitchens, stuffing her face with chocolate. However, Lily and Peter were nowhere to be seen.

The bell rang indicating the last period was over and the next was about to start. James and Sirius put their brooms in the shed as they headed down towards the dungeons. Adalyn simply walked out of the kitchens and down a corridor to meet Sirius and James outside the Potions classroom. Remus and Peter arrived shortly thereafter, but there was no sight of Lily.

"Where the ruddy hell is she?" Adalyn grumbled.

"Who knows..." James trailed off. And he truly didn't know where she was. He'd checked the map, and she was nowhere to be seen on it. He quietly informed the other boys of this.

"Bloody hell, mate," Sirius eloquently sighed.

"That means she's either found a part of this castle we haven't, or she's off grounds," murmured Remus.

"It's probably the latter," Peter jumped in, looking rather proud of himself. "We know every single nook and cranny in this place."

Just then, the door opened, and they all filed in, their thoughts still worried about Lily. As per usual, Adalyn sat down in her normal spot, only to look left and see Lily. "Where the ruddy hell were you?" she hissed.

"Good Afternoon, class," Slughorn boomed.

Lily simply shook her head.

"Good Afternoon, Professor Slughorn," the class chorused back.

"Today, we are going to talk about antidotes. I know we learned a bit about them last year, but I think it's time we go more in depth about them. Now, as a reminder, there are 7 different types of antidotes..." Slughorn began.

(A/N: This is about to get very confusing, I think. Adalyn writes like _this_. Lily writes like **this**. James writes like this. Sirius writes like _this_. And Remus writes like **this**. I apologise in advance if this gets confusing!)

Adalyn slipped Lily a note: _Seriously, WHERETHE RUDDY HELL WERE YOU?_

Lily rolled her eyes. **Marvellous Merlin! Calm down, will you? I'm in one piece, I'm alive, and I'm relatively healthy. You should be grateful for that.**

"Miss Evans, what is the most common and simplest antidote?" Slughorn asked. It was obvious he didn't think she was paying attention.

"A Bezoar, sir. It will fight most common poisons but will not fight deadly ones. It is the easiest antidote to use because all one has to do is shove the stone down the throat of the person who was poisons. It is the most common because it is a stone that is found in the stomach of a goat, a relatively common animal," Lily responded, sending Slughorn a smile that was reserved for adults and made her look angelic.

"Well done!" Slughorn boomed. "10 points to Gryffindor!"

_That still doesn't answer my question..._ Adalyn slide over to Lily.

**And I won't answer your question. I was busy. I was taking things that needed to be taken care of.**

_You are completely and utterly impossible, you know that?_

**You love me for it!** Lily drew a heart for extra measure.

Adalyn merely rolled her eyes in response.

Another note landed in front of Lily. The Marauders would also like to know where you were.

**Go away. If Addy's not getting an answer, then neither are you.** Lily wrote back. To Adalyn, she wrote, **We need to have a girl talk. There is a lot we need to talk about**.

_Like where you've been?_

**Like what the hell happened between you and Sirius.**

_Like what happened between you and James._

**Bugger. I don't have a response to that one.** Lily drew a frowny face.

Why not, Lilyflower? A note appeared again.

**Because you just called me Lilyflower.** She retorted in response.

_Haha! I win!_ Adalyn passed the note back to Lily.

But that's not a fair answer!__ The note complained.

**Too damn, bad. I will tell you lot the same thing I told Addy: I am fine. I am in one piece, I'm relatively healthy, and I'm alive. That's something to be grateful for.** Lily flicked the note back to the Marauders. To Adalyn she wrote, **This time! I always win!**

_Except for just now..._

**Oi! Quit poking holes in my logic!**

_It has to be logic for me to poke holes in... *smirks*_

**NOT FAIR!**

Behind the girls, James was confused by Lily's last note. Sure, those were all things to be grateful for, but it isn't something a 17-year-old girl would typically think about, let alone day. James passed the note onto Sirius, adding What do you make of it?

_Honestly, mate? I have no idea. Ask Moony. He's supposed to be the smart one._

James flicked the note over to Remus.

**Not something a happy 17-year-old girl would say. Something's definitely wrong.**

Before James could respond, the bell rang.

"Now I want a foot and a half on the different types of antidotes, due Thursday!" Slughorn announced.

The entire class groaned. Everyone began filing out, and when Adalyn look up, Lily was gone again.

"Dammit!" Adalyn swore, causing the Marauders to look at her. "She's gone again!" she explained.

"That girl is just too damn good at hiding," Sirius muttered.

"Truer words were never spoken," Adalyn offered in reply.

"You and your sayings," Remus shook his head.

Adalyn smiled. "You know you love it!"

"Can we please focus on the issue at hand here?" James said loudly as the five exited the Potions classroom.

"What did Lily tell you in the note?" Adalyn asked.

"How did you see that?" Sirius exclaimed.

"I've been passing notes with Lily for seven years, Blackie. I can always tell when people are passing notes," Adalyn rolled her eyes.

Sirius only grumbled in response.

"Addy, she said something about how we should be grateful she's alive and healthy," James said, worried.

"Yeah, I got the same response," Adalyn groaned.

"So that begs the question, what the bloody hell is wrong with Lily?"

**A/N: I'm not too sure about this chapter. There's an awful lot of fighting. I dunno. What do you think? Let me know in a review! Please?**


End file.
